Trip Report Magical MAYhem

Hey All!

After the enjoyment we had doing our trip report on our last visit to WDW (2 Brits, 2 Weeks, 2 Tonnes of fun) we thought we would have a go at doing it again!

So for now, here is our pre-trip report!

For those of you who didn't follow our last trip report we'll give you an introduction to ourselves again!

My name is Adam and my Fiance is Natasha (Tasha for short) We both like to take turns writing the report so i'll be referred to as A and Tasha will be refereed to as N. If you would like to know a little more about us, feel free to check out our trip report.

I'm the one of the left...

When, Where, How, and Why???

When: We are flying out MCO on the first week of May (Hence the title) and will be spending 15 nights there.

Where: We are staying off disney this time, as we already have a family trip planned in September where we will be on Disney. So during this trip we will be staying at the Rosen Inn at Point Orlando. Like last time we will give our final thoughts on the hotel after we've completed the report.

How: By plane... We find its the quickest way over the pond...

Why: Ok... so bare with me... This may be a long story... We originally planned to get married at Home with all the family and friends we could think of. However lady luck had different ideas for us and our wedding venue/Supplier went into liquidation taking our wedding (and rather large deposit with it) So instead of going back to square one, we decided to capitalize on the opportunity and as we were already having a family holiday in September plan a wedding for then whilst everyone is in Florida and we can take advantage of the beautiful sites on offer.

But wait it minute you may think... Whats this got to do with May?

Well... under the ruse of "Checking out the venue" and "Making sure everything is going to plan" it would have been rude not to pop into Disney whilst we are over there don't you think?

Plans so far:
Last time we went, we actually had a fairly strong gameplan. However on this trip we really have no preference as to what we are going to do. Last time we did head over to Crystal river to swim with the Manatees and that's something we would consider doing again although from what i understand May is not the right season for seeing the Manatees? (Any info on this would be greatly appreciated)

Your advice:
We would love recommendations on places to eat. We love to try new things and would love to hear your recommendations on places to eat either in Disney or out and about.

I am a diehard NFL fan (But a Saints fan first), and whilst we are over there would love to top up my jersey collection (i am currently trying to obtain jerseys for all 32 teams) so i would like to know best places to buy jerseys for a decent price. Last year I was finding it difficult to find jerseys less that 150 USD? Not sure with us going in the off-season that prices will be any cheaper? But any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.


We will keep you guys updated with any new developments we have. I imagine the trip report will start trickling in once we get back from our holidays as usually we just don't have the time do it when we are over there!

 

[Tashifer90]

Friday 10th May - Day 7

Today was going to be a day out of the parks and instead we were going to go around some of the malls. We left our hotel at 10 and decided to forgo breakfast in view of our mass gorging the previous evening. (I forgot to tell you yesterday we also had ice cream cake...)

We headed to the Florida mall and after some mooching around got a little peckish and decided to grab something from Asian Chao, nothing to fancy we both had the orange chicken and bourban chicken with rice. Simple, easy and delicious!!

Not many photos from our trip round the mall (We didn't want to look too touristy!) there's only one photo from our trip and thats me trying hats on in Lids...

I don't think i look like a good plumber to be honest...

The only upside of visiting Florida in the NFL off season was that they were selling jerseys off super cheap! (Not sure if you have seen the previous trip reports, but i'm currently on a mission to obtain all 32 team jerseys for my collection back home) managed to pick up a Tampa bay (Winston) and Seattle (Griffen) one for 50 USD each which I was chuffed about! I don't support either teams but i was very happy to have a Shaquem Griffen one, i think the guy is a real statement about where shear hard work and determination can get you.

<Preach over... apologies!!>

After that we headed to the premium outlets vineland and had a mooch round there.

but after all this shopping we had to dash back to the hotel room to get changed as we had made plans to eat at the boathouse this evening! We were really excited about heading here as this is where we are planning to have our reception meal after our wedding!

We had hoped to get back to the hotel with enough time to then try and get a lyft and test out the app for when we come back later on in the year but unfortunately we had no time and had to dash straight off and go to our reservation, which we managed to get to with about 4 minutes to spare!

The boathouse was lovely! When we arrived they had a guy who sounded a bit like seal singing in the background all the waiters & waitresses were super pleasant. They brought us to our table and got us started on some drinks and brought us some bread.

The bread... was... A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! There was an insane amount of glaze on it and the butter that went with it was to die for!

Look at that shine!!

Tasha had a Lemon Drop Martini

Shaken not stirred.

and i had the coconut Mojito!

Mmmmm!!!

For starters we decided to share a bowl of the firecracker shrimp it had the perfect amount of spice (Even though apparently we English only like bland food... judging by every waiter that asked us if mind having spicy food)

We accidently decided to eat one of the peppers mistaking it for a bell pepper... it was not.... and we paid the price!

It didn't stop us eating any more though haha!

After that it was time for mains N had Shrimp & Andouille Mac’ N Cheese

...Which she enjoyed thoroughly...

i had the Lobster with Oreccheitte pasta.

Apologies for the somehwat blurry quality of this photo, i was too hungry to wait any longer haha!

After that N ordered herself a coke as she was going to be designated driver for the evening and i thought i best try another cocktail to make sure i pick the right one when we come back for our wedding reception!

Treated myself to an old fashioned!

It blew my socks off.

Now that my judgement was somewhat impaired i made the fatal mistake of saying 'Yeah i suppose we could have a peek at the dessert menu'

Then i saw the Blueberry cheesecake... i had to order it! It would have been rude not too! Also what if one of our guests asked what desserts are good when they join us? We had to do it for them if anything... i swear...

N wasn't interested but i asked the waiter for a couple of forks anyways as we would be sharing (Maybe, but probably not) and the waiter said 'Oh absolutely the cheesecake is so big it's easier to share!'

WHAT HAVE I DONE!?! (I screamed internally)

A thing of beauty.

The look of a guilty man...

To be continued...

 

[Tashifer90]

Friday 10th May - Day 7 (Continued)

After our meal and N having to roll me out the restaurant because i ate so much cheesecake, we popped into the gift shop next door and had a peruse of their wares.

We were very tempted to pick these hats up!

Obviously N HAD to be the captain...

We then had a walk up and down Disney springs doing a bit of window shopping.

N managed to find her double in the star wars shop!

Uncanny...

We decided to head back to the car and leave, this is where we met 'Drunk Tommy' we only knew his name because he was wandering around the car park like a lost puppy after clearly having one to many cocktails, with his friends shouting 'TOMMY! TOMMY! THE CAR IS THIS WAY! FOLLOW ME OK?!'

The poor chap did look very bewildered!

We got back to the hotel for around 11pm thoroughly stuffed!

 

[Tashifer90]

Saturday 11th May- Day 8

After our fairly late night the day before we took our time getting ready Saturday morning (this was a poor decision on or part.. more on that later).

We entered into universal at around 10am. Our first park of the day was Islands of Adventure. We could tell we were in for a busy day as there were huge crowds of people around us as we walked in and the app said there was a 25min minimum wait for all of the rides.

The answer to longer waits... lets have breakfast!

We stopped over at the crescent moon bakery and booth had cheese, egg and bacon croissants. we were lucky to find a table and watched the (many) people walk by.

I made a friend!

Even though our tummys were feeling happily full the wait times had jumped even higher whilst we had our break.

We decided that our first ride of the day would be Poseidon adventure since the wait for that is usually the time it takes for the show to end.

Today's 'Taylor' was particularly energetic and gt the whole crowd involved and shared a few jokes along the way. I kind feel like this ride i enjoy the same way i do indiana jones stunt show. I've seen it tonnes of times but it never gets old!

We followed the path around the park and oon foud ourselves in hogsmeade.

We popped in and out of the various shops and enjoyed seeing the sights and enjoying the details that have gone in to make WWHP so much fun to visit!

A just had to take a photo of this water bottle since his nickname at home is Gilly.

We were surprised to see that forbidden journey was showing a 35 min wait so thought we'd jump in the queue whilst it was relatively low for a Saturday. Oh how we were wrong.

Our wait in the queue for Forbidden journey was our most unpleasant queue of our whole holiday!!

These smiles are hiding our inner pain!

Not only was the queue much longer than expected, we waited 60 mins to get on the ride. But for the entire queue experience we were behind one of the smelliest teenagers- I honestly have no words to describe the smell.

I remember as a teenager having to wash more often than normal especially in the heat (and my parents reminding me when the could smell me!). However the young lady in front of us had clearly not bathed for at least a few days judging by how greasy her hair was. At first A couldn't smell her as much as I could but when we entered the indoor queue there was no escaping it with enclosed walls! Now I didn't want to be too judgy as you never know whats going on with someone else but by the end of that 60 mins i was feeling decidedly sick (I'm not even lying). I don't understand however her family cold not have been smelling what we were!

I have never felt such relief as when they were selected to jump on with another family and we were placed with another group!!! The joy of getting off that ride and enjoying some fresh air was the best feeling ever!

I dont know if it was the smell or the ride but we were both still feeling queazy 5 mins after the ride had finished. We decided to head over UOS by catching the hogwarts express.

we were squeezed into one of the carriages with another family. We felt a bit bad interrupting their family experience but the cast member would not allow us our own carriage.

Once off the train we decided to make a mad dash for the animal actors show that was starting 5 mins after we disembarked. Next entailed a mad 5 minute speed walk across the park to get there in time!

If you followed our last trip report you would know that it was our first time watching this show last september and we loved it! so We couldnt resist another chance to watch the show. I love haow all the animals love what they are doing and get treated so nicely by the staff whether they do the tricks correctly or not!

There was a very sweet german boy chosen to help out on stage that literally ran away when a vulture flew towards him. I don't think he cottoned on that it was a joke!

After the show we stopped by one of the vendors and grabbed a churro to share whilst the Gru dance party started in front of us.

A says this is not the first time I have held a foot long ha...... ha........ ha........

We don't have any shots of the dance party but the kids around seemed to enjoy it!

Next we decided to try for another first in Universal and watch the horror makeup show! We've repeatedly been told how good this show is and today was the first chance we've had to actually sit and watch it.

Even the pre show had things to keep us entertained.. We had just sat sat down and was getting comfortable in our seats when we saw a man physically drag his teenage son out of the theater followed by a yell of 'YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO SAY!!!'. Our seat neighbors informed us that the young man had been using some 'colourful' language and when his father told him to stop he told him to 'go away'. The father then dragged him out of the room

There was dead silence for about 2 seconds followed by applause for the father!

Scene of the 'show'

The actual horror makeup show was hilarious! The two actors kept the whole theater entertained and we couldn't stop laughing. They picked an older lady called Velma to help them. Velma didn't quite understand what was going on which made it all the more funny! We will definitely be watching this show again!

It was now early/mid afternoon, the crowds were heavy and the humidity was high. We decided it was time to grab a drink before heading out of the park.

To be continued...

 

[Tashifer90]

Saturday 11th May- Day 8 Continued

On our way out through city walk we were enticed into voodoo donuts. It wouldn't be right to have a drink without a snack right?

A had the maple bacon and I had the orange popsicle donut. We had these during our last visit so we knew they were good choices. The very nice server gave us an extra donut as the first one she grabbed apparently didn't meet a certain standard. We weren't complaining!

Whilst we sat and ate our donuts we discussed our plan for the next day. The Saturday was really busy and we didn't realise that the Sunday was Mothers day in the US (its in March in the UK). Based on the likelihood of crowds everywhere we thought it would be a good idea to have a water park day instead of battling with the crowds.

With that in mind we headed over to Walmart to grab some snacks for the water park tomorrow. Whilst going round the store looking at all the food we started to feel hungry and wanted to find somewhere. We were fancying mexican and basically just googled mexicans in the international drive area

Our quick google sent us over to Chuys! We had no idea what to expect but elvis chic was not it lol!

free chips and salsa were a life saver A was starting to get hangry before this stage.

the hanger is real....

Much better now!!

I had the boom boom pork enchiladas

The enchiladas had a nice kick to them.

A had the burrito 'as big as your head'. he happily demolished his plate!

We thought the food was really tasty and for $13 a main you cant beat the price!

The only downside to our meal was the service. Our waitress was quite cold and didn't really even speak to us much until the end of the meal.

When our mains arrive we didn't have our knives and forks and our waitress was nowhere t be found. A went up to another waitress to ask if he could get a knife and fork and was told.

'you'll have to wait as i'm busy right now'

At the time A was too shocked to really taken it in but instead went too the seating station and grabbed something there (since our food was ready and getting cold). We would have been more than happy to have been pointed in the right direction but that kind of service leaves a very bad taste in your mouth!!!

We hadnt really been payig that much attention to the weather so when we left Chuy's and was greeted by thick black clouds and lightning we knew we needed to rush back to our hotel!

During the short drive to the hotel the heavens opened. Luckily the aprking gods were on our side and we managed to get a space right next to our hotel building.

We both enjoy watching storms (when were safely out of them) and grabbed a couple of beers, headed up to top floor of the room block, and sat drinking beers and watching the lightning across the sky.

It was a peaceful end to a hot and sweaty day!

 

[heatherhy01]

All caught up! I am loving your report so much. I like seeing how other's do their vacation with more than just Disney involved. I would love to visit Universal one day. But whenever we get to Florida, we always just visit Disney because we are a little obsessed!

 

[Tashifer90]

All caught up! I am loving your report so much. I like seeing how other's do their vacation with more than just Disney involved. I would love to visit Universal one day. But whenever we get to Florida, we always just visit Disney because we are a little obsessed!

We do too! It's always great seeing how some people can go to the same place but i have a completely different experience there as well!

 

[Tashifer90]

Sunday 12th May - Day 9

Quick note: Apologies that we disappeared off the face of the earth for a while there! The wedding planning is taking up our lives at the moment so we don't have time to write as much as we would like too! Ps. We get married in 2 weeks. Eeeeep!!!!

Today was going to be a waterpark day! We were still stuffed from food the night before. The 'Big as your face burrito' was still taking up a lot of room in my stomach haha!

We got to Typhoon at precisely 10:01! Perfect timing! We walked right through the ticket line and headed to find a nice spot. We. Found. The. Best. Spot. EVER!

It was this amazing little alcove that looked right over the wave pool and just fitted us into it nicely!

We headed into the wave pool and decided to try out our gopro for the first time.

It went... Pretty well...

After that i managed to convince N to go on some of the slides (If it was up to her she would spend literally all day in the lazy river)

Got a nice action shot of me flying round the corner.

We also went to misadventure falls which was essentially a walk on.
N was overjoyed by being the one going down the slide backwards.

After that N finally got her way and we ended up floating around the lazy river for a while.

Managed to get a photo of her being totally relaxed...

Now we were starting to get peckish. Luckily the night before we went and got our Mega Sandwich from Walmart and split that along with a few bugles whilst we dried off in the sun.

It was Huge!! (Iphone XS Max for reference)

However after this... the rain came....

Sat there enjoying our lunch when we thought 'Oh a bit of the wave pool splashed me then... Oh it did it again... Oh wait it's not the pool its rain!!'

We immediately rammed everything into our back pack and threw it under a palm tree for protection whilst it began to pour. We watched as families grabbed there stuff and ran towards the exit. However as quickly as the rain arrived, it left. It had come and gone in around 10mins and for the rest of the day it was glorious sunshine!

N very happy with the rain clouds far in the distance.

Then we decided to dry off and sunbathe in the sun for a while. Great times for N topping up her tan.

...Not great for Casper the friendly ghost over here though...

There is no sun block that can protect me from burning...

After that we headed to get changed and set off to Disney springs! We were very burnt and this point so was looking forward to sitting in an air conditioned cinema to cool ourselves down!

We stopped by raglan road and watched some of the Irish bands playing, I had a baileys ice cream shake to cool myself down. It was delicious! N was the designated driver so she settled for a coke zero with a side of water... woo!

We felt bad not staying to eat as the food did look really good and couple sat on the table next to us recommended us to have the Lamb shank. It did look really good too but there was no way we could fit it in and get to the cinema in time!

Also major Fanboy moment for me! I saw Paul Scheer (Andre from The league) walking down the road! I'm a huge fan of the show and had I not felt rude for asking I would have grabbed him for a photo! But I felt rude to interrupt his holiday, so thought better of it.

After this N decided to top up on suncream but ended up having a suncream disaster and covering her top with it instead! So she HAD to go into uniqlo and buy herself a new top...

We were going to watch detective pikachu (Very good, would highly recommend) at AMC theatres. We didn't go into the dine in section this time and went to the normal part. However the ordering process is so weird? So you walk past all the stuff you can have, go to the till, tell them what you want and then go back round in a circle to collect the stuff from where you originally came in? What?!?! I'm not sure if that's like a normal thing but it seemed very confusing for us!

After the movie and only stuffing our face with Popcorn, prezel bites and Twizzlers we were wanting something with a little more sustenance. We looked for nearest pizza places on the way home and found a cici's on Int. Drive. We were very lucky as they were closing in about 20 minutes. But they were still happy to serve us which I was very surprised about! I don't think i would be happy about someone coming in to order food at the end of my shift, but they were super nice. They even gave us a free buffet voucher as well

Pizza was super amazing. Olives on one side for me

Collapsed in bed fully stuffed around quarter to ten!

 

[sheriffwoody]

You sound like my husband! He burns BAD. Water Babies SPF 70 is the only thing that works for him.

 

[Tashifer90]

You sound like my husband! He burns BAD. Water Babies SPF 70 is the only thing that works for him.

I'm lucky that my mums side of my family are of Caribbean decent but A used to be a pure carrot top the worse part is he forgets to apply sun cream and then moans about the consequences! There was a whole year after summer 2016 where his legs looked like the photo below

i dont understand how someone stays this colour for a whole year!!!

 

[AgentPerry]

Sorry it's late, but on board, love reading another Brit's trip report, and congrats on the up coming wedding. My wife is a red head, so know all about the constant reapplying of sunscreen, most of our wdw hol in the summer was complaints of 'urghhh im burning'

 

[Tashifer90]

Sorry it's late, but on board, love reading another Brit's trip report, and congrats on the up coming wedding. My wife is a red head, so know all about the constant reapplying of sunscreen, most of our wdw hol in the summer was complaints of 'urghhh im burning'

Thanks for following a long! we feel the same whenever we see any other brits in these forums lol!

 

[Tashifer90]

Monday 13th May- Day 10

After a fairly later evening the day before we decided to have a casual breakfast at Denny's. Unfortunately we have no photos but we had the same as our previous visits (slamwich for A and pancakes for me).

With happy tums we then spent the morning getting A some sports gear for the upcoming season of american football (sorry I have to call it 'american' football as its too confusing at home not to lol!). A has joined a local team but sourcing gear from the uk is easier said than done without it costing an arm and a leg! There are no photos of the couple of hours we spent searching because A was too giddy buying things and I was too bored

Whilst we were in academy sports outdoors and nearing the end of the shopping we started to hear the rain outdoors... even though we couldn't see it we were worried for the rest of our days plans at MK and hopefully HEA.

The rain was just as bad as we had feared! We bought some ponchos at academy sports to save us a little bit from from the torrential downpour. There was no way we were going back out in the rain so poor A was forced to climb into the boot to grab our stuff for the park.

Putting the ponchos on in the car was easier said than done.. A got a quick punch to the head for leaning too close to me when i was getting mine on... oops!

trying to decide whether ears over poncho is a good look and do I dare risk my ears in the rain! (the answer was no lol).

Because the rain was still chucking it down we decided to get the monorail over to MK. Our moods were a little bit low with all the rain around us.

Things started to look up when our monorail arrived. Whether it was due to the rain or just because we are that special we obtained @Tuvalu 's shirley status on the way there.

A is very please to have reach shirley status! (and also get out of the rain)

Much happier faces out of the rain and also location of our 'where are we today' for our family at home

Once into MK we went on a speed walk to get to our next fastpass but on the way heard some interesting conversations! I think that the rain was making people more cranky than they should be in the Happiest Place on Earth.

Conversation 1: Man talking to child in a threatening voice (presumably his own)

'You're going to wish that you went home'

Conversation 2: Woman talking to small child that is crying (again presumably her own)

' you'll get over it. This is for us not you'

Both of these we heard in the time it took to speed walk from the entrance to Tomorrowland... I don't know what was getting into people!

Despite all of the grumpy people between us and or destination we managed to get to our FP on Buzz lightyear with 5 mins to spare 'phew'!

We don't have a note of how we did but I can only guess that we had fun!

After Buzz the rain was still coming down but not quite as fast as before. Unfortunately it was too late for our trainers and both and trainers and socks were soaked through

We walked across the hub and over to our next fastpass thunder Mountain. When we had entered the park all outdoor rides had closed so we had been worried that with the rain and thunder that we wouldn't be able to get our next fastpasses and were thinking of braving the 150min space mountain FP queue if we got a multi experience pass. Luckily we needn't have worried! By the time we got to thunder mountain the ride must have just opened up. We thanked our lucky stars and and got on the ride with next to no wait at all. We were even more lucky to be placed in the back row. This more or less never happens to us so we were over the moon! all of the train/coaster type rides are so much more fun in the back row!

Breakfast felt like a long time a go (and it was) so we headed over to one of our favourite QS locations Pecos Bills for some dinner. The luck just seemed to keep coming for us today, initially we were directed to an almost empty queue to order when the place looked packed. After ordering our luck continued and we managed to get a table in the 'dark' area (I dot know what its called and a CM almost immediately prevented any one else from going in the same area. we were one of approx 5 families there so we felt like we had all the space in the world!

We had the perfect opportunity to dry off a little bit and fill our tummy's. I had the fajita's and A had the taco trio. the fixin's bar just makes the food here so good.

By the time we had finished our meals the rain had stopped, hurrah! This meant that our plans to watch HEA were back on. Since it was the closest ride near to us we walked across to PotC and had a roughly 20 min wait for the ride. with the rain stopping peoples moods seemed to lift and everyone queuing seemed in good spirits, including us.

PotC is classic and never gets old. I'm not a fan of the new read head scene but I know why they had to change it.

More odd things were happening to us o this ride. We were directed to the back row of the boat but the CM didn't fill the row in front us at all?! did we smell???? There's nothing like being separated from everyone to get you worrying about body odour Unfortunately no ride photo to prove or disprove whether our ride companions were horrified by us.

O our way out through the gift shop we couldnt resist checking to see if we'd make good looking pirates.

I think i'm a bit of a myspace pirate here

A trying his hat at (pun intended) being a camp pirate.

To be continued......

 

[Tashifer90]

Monday 13th May- Day 10 continued

After PotC we noticed that the tiki room was open and fairly quiet so we headed that way. I think it has been a couple of visits since we'd been in the tiki room so I was quite looking forward to it.

I don't know why but I always forget about this pre show.

But I can't stop myself singing along with all the birds!

Due to the rain I hadn't been able to bring my ears into the park in case they were ruined by the rain. this meant i just 'had' to treat myself to some new ears With that 20% AP discount in mind we headed back to the main street emporium.

This cute little fella was making the most of the moist grass on the way.

Once down Main street it didn't take me long to pick my new ears. I'd been eyeing these once up since we'd arrived in Florida.

A did not get the memo i was taking a photo...

There were also a few more temptations as we were looking around the shops.

If I'd have thought Baymax could fit into my suitcase he would have been coming home with us!

On our way out of the shop we caught a photopass photographer with a short queue so grabbed a photo.

We thought this photographer was particularly good as all the photos she took were lovely. I wish we had remembered to grab her name.

We walked back through he hub on our way to our next FP for Haunted mansion. The sun was doing magical things in the queue and we got a lovely view of the liberty belle back on her merry way around the rivers of america.

that sunshine

We were first into the stretching room and first out again! I feel like someone was watching out for us this day.

We looked at the MDE to look for shorter wait times headed and then headed over to its a small world.

We ended up in the back row again and had an enjoyable ride until the docking station. I don't know if its always been like this but the jiggling we went through as we returned to the dock was extreme and I was not wearing enough support upstairs if you know what i mean! I'm sure the man that was controlling the boats had the best view of me from above! you just have to laugh at these things when they happen but the people around us thought we were a bit odd.

My name showed up on the screen. It hadn't happened before

To be continued...

 

[Tashifer90]

Monday 13th May 2019- Day 10 continue

So in my frenzy writing I forgot to share a ride photo I think you would all enjoy. Whilst on Haunted mansion we still hadn't figured out where the ride photo is taken. This was our result.

I really wish I could say this was staged but it isn't Because we don't know where the photo is taken we don't even know what we were doing to make these faces. PLEASE someone help us!!!!!

Time was on our side and no sooner had we left its a small world, Our FP for 7DMT had started. I love it when plans come together this way. The sun was just beginning to set again and the sky was looking perfect. It looked like we would have a more of less clear sky for HEA.

we got into the queue for 7DMT. We had been really lucky getting FP's for this at the 30 day out mark.

A may have been getting a bit bored with me taking pictures of the sky every 2 mins. It was just too pretty!!!

Our wait to get on the ride was approx 10mins and after A very nicely asked the CM she allowed us to ride in the back row!! the ride is a little bit more intense at the back and I almost lost my ears before the first photo.

I took them off after this as i didn't want to loose them for good.

Much more enjoyable!

The time was getting closer to 9pm and the beginning of HEA so we headed back to the hub to stake our place out. We managed to get a fairly decent spot in the area to the right of the hub. We had hopes of getting snacks before the show began but it was just too busy.

getting excited at this point.

The show was amazing as per usual and there may have been a small tear shed on my part. I just cant help myself. The people around us were certainly interesting and they did attract our attention away from the show once in a while. To our left were a family with two small daughters (maybe around 6/7&4?). The father picked one of the daughters up so she could see better but she just kept trying to climb futher up her dad. She literally tried to use his neck/shoulder as an extra foot hold. I dont know where she would have climbed afterher feet would have reached his head lol The funniest part was he didn't seem to mind although i could imagine he would have had bruises from her trainers by the morning.

To the right A spent his time being fearful of an energetic toddler being held by his mother with a bubble wand. He swears it almost hit him in the head but I'm not so sure

The funny thing about HEA is that if we hadn't written the notes about this down we would never have remembered the odd things we'd seen. We would only have remembered how amazing it was to watch the show.

I couldn't resist getting a photo that showed how happy I was after watching HEA.

Just as the photo was being taken a lady passing by stopped to tell me how adorable I was. I don't think anyone has called me adorable since I was 6 so it put an even bigger grin on my face.

Even though we were starting to feel a bit tired we decided to ignore our aches and pains and set off to tomorrowland with the hope of getting on space mountain in a reasonable time before it closed.

space mountain just looks lovely with the lighting at night.

It took us around 30 mins to get onto the ride but it felt like much longer with sore feet. we were sent to the left and the way they wound the queue round kept making us think we were closer to getting on the ride than we actually were.

By the time we were on the ride we were ready to have a bit of fun with the ride photo.

I sometimes think about the lucky CM who gets to review the photos or search for the missing photopasses. Boy must they see a lot!

On our way out of the park it was getting close to 10pm. We decided to wait just by the edge of Main street and were lucky enough to catch the kiss good night. We hadn't heard it before and it just makes it feel like a magical end to the day. Is it Roy Disney who you hear I'm not sure?

The crowds were still pretty high when we were leaving so we thought instead of joining the queues for either monorail or boat we would try the coach back to TTC. This was a life saver I tell you all! no sooner had we walked up to the bus station there was a bus ready and waiting to go. It literally took us about 15 minutes to get back to the car. We all know how tired it can be after a long day at the park waiting to get a bus so this was a happy change.

I don't know what time we collapsed into bed but we were ready for it!

 

[riverside]

I really wish I could say this was staged but it isn't Because we don't know where the photo is taken we don't even know what we were doing to make these faces. PLEASE someone help us!!!!!

I'm right there with you--I don't know either & my one from the other day is a classic!!

 

[Tashifer90]

I'm right there with you--I don't know either & my one from the other day is a classic!!

Maybe we needed to start a Ride photo anonymous. where people can share their terrible ride photos judgement free

 

[Tashifer90]

Tuesday 14th May - Day 11

Today we had a late start due to our late night at Magic Kingdom, I gave N a rude awakening by almost burning down the hotel. (I switched the A/C to heat and thought i would put our shoes over it to dry them out from the day before... we ended up getting a burnt cheesy smell... not amazing... Think there was some smoke too!)

We headed out our room and as we were leaving a gentleman who was parked next to us told us we should have gotten up earlier to go to Disney! (Hey... i'm on holiday... i want to lay in some days! haha!) I can only assume he was jealous of us as he was packing his car getting ready for checkout hehe!

Also... I always thought you had to be a special kind of stupid to be one of those people in the movies that leave stuff on the roof of their car and drive off... Well... not anymore, because i am one of those idiots. I managed to drive round the hotel, out onto the main road and wait at the traffic lights before a Rosen inn staff member came running out across the road shouting that i had left my cap on the roof of the car!

We got into AK around 1030ish and headed straight to our FP at EE

But not before N wanted a photo infront of the tree of life

Then it was on to Everest!

But first... Ice cream! We were both a little peckish so N grabbed the mickey ice lolly and i got myself the ice cream sandwich. Had to share some with our little visitor though...

SQUIRREL!

N was not giving any of hers away easily...

Now time for Everest!

I feel like my ride photo game is strong with this one...

We even got a 'nice' photo from the bridge that looks at EE

After that we did the Maharajah Jungle trek and got a nice close up view of the tiger!

and saw someone getting their lunch as well!

...So we thought we'd stop and get ours too!

...From dino bar though... not from the bird...

We both got the Shrimp and Nuggets because we absolutely love both of them! I love getting the mustard pots and dipping my nuggets in them and having some gherkins (pickles) on the side! Although i really should start carrying some altoids with me for afterwards...

Towards the end of our meal the place really started to become busy... like REALLY busy, me and N were both a little confused as it was a little early for lunch, it was only when we stepped outside we realized why everyone was coming in... IT. WAS. POURING DOWN!

The picture doesn't show it in great detail but it was raining so heavy we didn't think our ponchos would stand up to it either, so we waited it out like everyone else...

Took some selfies whilst we did though...

To be continued...

 

[Tashifer90]

Tuesday 14th May - Day 11 Continued

After about 10-15 minutes of waiting we were getting a little bored and the rain was slowing although not completely stopping. We decided to brave the weather as it was and see if we could get to the Lion King show in time. It cost us our trainers (Again) but we made it! We got seats pretty much right on the floor and the show was very entertaining. The dancers were all super enthusiastic I feel like this is probably the best show in AK (Yes even better than Rivers of light) the performers just but so much effort into their craft that you wouldn't even think they had done this show several times already.

The monkeys are a particular favorite of mine, even down to when they're not performing they sit next to each other 'grooming' each other

After the show, it was time for our fast pass at NRJ. It was raining that much anymore, but we kept out ponchos on so they would dry quicker. we got some selfies next to the 'floating' rocks

It was a good job we kept our ponchos on however, as when we got on the boat for NRJ, other wet people must have been sat there before us, so we almost ended up with some wet butts!

N got herself a photo with one of the Na'avi

We headed over to KJ Safaris we narrowly missed an opportunity to get on earlier as when they asked for a two me and N we not quick enough to put our hands up but the CM saw us and felt bad and said he would give us the front row to ourselves on the next bus! Which turned out to be the best safari we've had to date, i'm not sure if it was because the rain had just stopped but all the animals were super active! All of them were out and about. Even saw the elusive Rhino!

We also got a nice close up of the Springbok (I think that's what it was anyways...)

and the giraffes!

The driver then had to stop as some of the animals had decided they would cross the road!

We were waiting their for a while so our driver had to refer to what i assume was his 'Filler' sheet? Which was good because we heard some stuff we've never heard before! He actually said when we stopped 'I've got to stop here for a moment because i'm a union guy and I'm on break!'

After the Safari we decided to head to gorilla falls to have a look around, we got quite the show when we did!

N got a brilliant photo of the new baby with its mummy.

It was all calm and peaceful, until a fight broke out between these two over who was going to eat the leafy grass things.

There was a bit of grappling going on between the pair but nothing too serious and the Silverback came across and broke it up eventually.

But after it calmed down the little guy came across to the Silverback and decided that wasn't the end of it! Came across and gave his dangly bits a whack and then ran for the hills with the Silverback chasing after!

I assume they have made up now...

To be continued...again...

 

[Tashifer90]

Tuesday 14th May - Day 11 Continued... again

After our wander around gorilla falls, we were heading to the loo but then N spotted the menu of a nearby cafe (Cannot remember the name of the cafe) but we do remember they did a colossal cinnamon Micky swirl. It was HUGE!! Me and N shared it and we were very happy!

When then left AK and headed back to the hotel for a mini siesta to recuperate. Then it was back out and heading for HS! We had this idea when we last went to HS and we noticed whilst we were waiting for Fantasmic that the queues were shorter than usual for SDD and TSMM so we thought we would head back and try and get on those rides whilst fantasmic was ongoing.

On arrival we headed to star Tours as that is always a reliably low wait time.

After that we headed to the Launch bay where both me and N got hassled by stormtroopers. This has to be by number one highlight of the holiday. They really do take it seriously and always seemed to have an answer for every response we gave them.

They first asked N if she had clearance to be in this area.

She said that she did... however they said they would have believed her if i wasn't with her! i can only assume they've heard of my constant pat downs at security!

He decided that he would need to see N's ID which unfortunately she didn't have... but lucky for her they were busy and moved onto their next victim.

It really is these moments that put Disney head and shoulders above any other theme park, its these small moments of magic that you really remember for the rest of the holiday and always talk about with friends when you get back.

After our rough encounter with the first order, we watched the movie in the Launch bay and then did a tour of the museum section. I was too shy and terrified of social awkwardness to head in and get my photo with Kylo-Ren even though a CM offered it to us as well! However next time I really need to force myself too!

We headed over to toy story land which was looking very picturesque in the twilight!

N got the obligatory photo with the ball.

As N popped to the loo i checked wait times as we were going to head into Alien swirling saucers (Sorry no acronym, I think you know why...) but as we got in the queue we saw that TSMM only had a 20 min wait so we hopped on that instead!

Got myself a nice score with N following close behind. I got the honor of being best in vehicle too!

We headed over to SDD at about quarter to 9 and it was only a 30 min wait!

We tried our luck at being cheeky again and asked to sit at the back and we got fairly close!

It was great of course, this really is a good ride for the whole family i feel.

Also, toy story land really does look very nice in the night!

We left the park at half 9ish and were starving so was going to try and grab some Thai or Chinese food from somewhere.

As we were driving down the I4 though there was a car driving with absolutely no lights on so we tried to flash him with our lights a few times to let him know. (This is a thing in the U.K, i'm not sure if this is something that means the same across the pond) but he still didn't have his lights on when we left the I4 either!

Our food issues hit an impasse however as most fast food places or takeout places were closed at 10? I guess this is normal in the states but we were really surprised because back home its not uncommon for a pizza place or Chinese food place to stay open till about 1 in the morning.

Luckily we found the pizza hut across the way and picked up a pie from there to satisfy us

 

[Tashifer90]

Wednesday 15th May - Day 12

Our shoe issues continued to plague us today! They were still soaked from the day before so we had to spend a good 20 mins holding the hair dryer to them this time!

We got to Denny's for about 10 I had the horchata ice cream pancakes and N had the all american slam. (Which i forgot to get a picture of)

I fancied this as i tried making my own horchata at home after watching the 2nd season of american vandal and i was curious as to how it might taste, i really enjoyed it, i also enjoyed having it in ice cream form too! (Everything is better in ice cream form)

We arrived at HS and again i got 'randomly selected'...

We headed for our FP at star tours, however when we went on it this time, everything had changed on the ride! It had all the elements from the new star wars movie in it! Instead of darth vader stopping the ship before it departs it was Kylo-Ren, we raced with the ski speeders underneath some AT-AT's and then at the end of the ride you actually land in the galaxys edge theme park section which was really cool! Overall very impressed!

Headed over to muppets which was a 15 minute wait and then after that grabbed a drink from Pizza rizzo.

It was time for our fast pass at TSMM unfortunately no pictures of the scores, but lets assume I won hehe!

We then did the Aladdin preview tour as well, i had no idea they did previews until N told me so that was pretty cool!

We had our FP for RR after that, I am still yet to master the art of posing for the ride photo on this one. That speed at the start of the ride makes it impossible to make your own silly face apart from the one below:

ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

We grabbed ourselves an ice cream and ice cream sandwich to eat whilst we watched Indiana Jones, but unfortunately we must have arrived at the wrong time because it was absolutely heaving, there was standing room only at the back but we sat near the concrete wall whilst we ate our ice cream and just decided to leave straight afterwards which was a little disappointing. N was still feeling a little peckish so she grabbed some nachos from the quick service place at the lake and I had still not yet had my fill of funnel cake this holiday and decided it was time to get my sugar fix!

N was very happy with these beauties!

I got the Mickey funnel cake... i may have over-indulged a little a bit...

So i shared some with this guy...

He told me he would pay for it... Just put it on his bill...

By this time the weather was getting extremely warm and our feet were hurting because last night we swapped into our sandals due to the wet trainers and this was not pleasant on our feet walking round a park. (Sketchers are the only way forward!)

We got some photopass photos in front off the tower of terror though which turned out pretty well i thought!

They then asked us to give them our best prince and princess pose!

We decided to head back to the hotel to cool down for a swim, unfortunately we only ended up having time to have a shower and get dressed, because we had dinner reservations at La Hacienda de San Angel.

To be continued...