Trip Report The countdown just hit zero - We’re in Disney right now!

Greetings fellow Disney lovers and welcome one and all to this happy place. As the title suggests I am in Florida right now, living the dream

Some of you will know me but for those of you who don't let's have a quick introduction as my 17 night trip has already started. Yes you read that right - 17 nights - whoooooo. Hoooooooo.


Me - Tracey - I absolutely love Disney, my house is covered in Disney - my first night in POR will see me spending 300 nights in my favourite place - I live in a bubble and the outside world frustrates me in terms of horrible, violent people but that's another story and not one for my trip report.


Chris - my husband, best friend and my rock. We've been married for 21 years and we still laugh and joke with each other. He never wanted to go to Disney but now his hooked - love me, love Disney!


We're in Florida from the UK for our 21st trip - I am fortunate to be able to afford this every year but I'm still jealous of all my American friends who can get cheap flights over regularly (and this who now live here) - this trip alone with overnight at a hotel before our flight, car parking, Disney, Kennedy and Universal tickets, car hire and hotel cost us in excess of £4000


It's a substantial amount of money but hey, the amount of memories we create we really don't mind and why we can afford it we will go......

Here we are last year.

This TR might be a little different from my last 3 - I’ve previously done daily updating every night which at times has seen me spending all day in the park and then writing till well beyond midnight. Those of you who have done TR’s will know the time they take (it’s certainly a commitment but we all do it to share our stories and our love of Disney so others can live through it all and help with Disney blues or countdowns to their own trips)

I’ve not had a holiday or break from work since March so I just need to chill!


That said since I’ve been here I’ve been writing every day (but not posted) - so our trip - so far - will be easy to post (as I’ll just copy and paste) and add photos of course!


After that though who knows as we’ll be into the Disney park part of our holiday (more about that shortly)

We’ll just see what happens and and I’ll update when I can for those of you who want to read it!


All aboard!

 

[Rista1313]

What was that drink you had to have in Uni? It didn't look like a butter beer.

 

[Tiggertoo56]

Photos of HEA are fantastic- so looking forward to this next year! And what's wrong with ice cream at that time of night? Enjoy the rest of your time at 'home'.

 

[bh_trade]

Many have already complimented on this, but I just have to add: you have a great eye for pictures, they really do a great job of making the viewer think they are "there" with you. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.

 

[coachwnh]

Looks like it was a bit cooler last night. Plenty of long pants and jackets at the MK! Enjoyed the pictures. Looking forward to more.

 

[Longers]

Wonderful pictures of HEA! You sure packed a lot of fun in one day.

I think we surprised ourselves - HEA is now my top fireworks in Disney - they were amazing - the photos don’t do it justice

HEA photos are STUNNING!!!

Haven't seen this show in person, our last couple and next couple of Disney vacations are cruises, so I don't know when I'll see it live, but wow, those pictures make me want to fly down there this weekend and catch it!!

ETA: And what a great day at Uni! I'd love the chance to explore all the HP queues without someone trying to rush me along.

It was super stunning - words cannot describe it.
And Uni was great with no queues it’s probably one of the quietest days we’ve ever had there.

You are doing very full days of fun and excitement
I salute your stamina!!

Max

We didn’t do as well today but we have been keeping this up for near on 14 nearly 2 weeks

What was that drink you had to have in Uni? It didn't look like a butter beer.

I always get a lemon ice when I am in Universal - is that the one you mean?

Photos of HEA are fantastic- so looking forward to this next year! And what's wrong with ice cream at that time of night? Enjoy the rest of your time at 'home'.

Thank you - I was happy to eat ice cream at 11pm

Many have already complimented on this, but I just have to add: you have a great eye for pictures, they really do a great job of making the viewer think they are "there" with you. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.

Thanks for reading and glad your liking the pictures - I’ve just filled up a memory card - I normally take over 1000 pictures every trip anyway - this year with my new camera has been no exception. I think everyone on here probably likes looking at them more than my family and friends anyway.

Looks like it was a bit cooler last night. Plenty of long pants and jackets at the MK! Enjoyed the pictures. Looking forward to more.

It was a wee bit windy last night - we had cardigans on just to take the chill off -it was colder at night than it had be hence the reason everyone resorted to jackets.
Glad the fact that I packed one didn’t go to waste!

 

[Longers]

Thursday 16th November

After yesterday’s epic marathon we had decided to just wake up when we did this morning rather than set an alarm.

No danger of any lie in as our neighbours woke us up with their children screaming outside our door at around 7am - they Didn’t leave the room until after 9am though so I’m not sure why they couldn’t have taken them somewhere else.

When I took my nephews to Euro Disney many years ago we would get up early (as they were excited) but we would always play a game thorough the hotel of how quiet they could be so they didn’t wake others to get to the park when we did - I told them that would mean we would queue for less time - it appears others can’t be as considerate.

Maybe we should have made more noise at midnight last night!

Anyhow, after being woken up we just took our time getting ready (I updated yesterday’s details for my Disney friends (you) and Chris just read.

We left our room and went to Saratoga Springs for Chris to go to the golf shop and then popped into Disney Springs - we ate outside in the sunshine at Cookes of Dublin And then went to get some bars of Ghiradelli chocolate from our ever increasing number of snacks.

We were soon headed to Animal Kingdom

I wanted to go to Pandora just to get some photos with blue sky - despite there being lovely sunshine and blue skies very few of them show it - the sun seems to shine behind the floating mountains.

Skip this bit if you don’t want to see more Pandora shots! I make no apology this is just beautiful. I could just sit in Pandora all day.

We went round to Everest and a few other bits and returned but couldn’t believe that the queue for FOP was 85 mins at 2.37pm in the afternoon

This queue has literally been 2 hours or more every time we’ve visited
At the same time the queue for Navi was 120 mins

We had a 4.25 FP for this anyway so we just carried on exploring

 

[Longers]

Stumbled across these guys - I remember seeing these one year and being amazed at the strength of them - they certainly looked like they were enjoying themselves and some of the lifts they do are amazing

Chris fancied an ice cream - I didn’t - clearly there’s something the matter with me!

We headed to ITTBAB - I know I shouldn’t laugh but I always have a chuckle at this one with all the children who start crying - surely the parents prepared them that it will be about bugs?
The hopper that used to be on the side wasn’t there though - I don’t know if his been removed or whether it wasn’t working?

There were only 2 families in line to meet King Louie so we went to say hello

 

[Longers]

It was nearing our FOP FP so we headed back to ride (we do walk a lot and often backwards and forwards but we have to burn off all the calories we’re eating!)

World of Avatar was closing at 6pm for a private event so we took a few photos and headed off to catch a safari - we made the penultimate one of the night - this was the first night safari I had ever done - it didn’t go over the rickety bridge but instead cut through some of the other paths which was kind of cool

We didn’t see a lot of animals but the ones we did see were active and our driver did stop for longer periods of time - here are 2 bluryish photos - many of the animals were hard to get - the lions were out and were walking which was kind of cool..

We grabbed a quick service meal and headed onto dinosaur at around 6.52 (the park was closing at 7)
I think a few people know where the camera is!

And we then ran over to primeval whirl and made the penultimate ride on that for the night.

We then had a leisurely stroll to the front of the park - checking out the shops on the way out.
We left at around 7.50 to a stream of taxi’s and cars coming in for their private event, We were happy we weren’t at that event as I think they were only going to be in Pandora and to be honest for the number of them arriving I think they might be experiencing larger wait times tonight (more than the times we’ve seen all day!)

We’ve not done much else tonight but will be having a full on day again tomorrow before the crowds arrive at the weekend for thanksgiving week.

Thanks for sticking with me!

 

[disneypearl]

I love the Dinosaur photo! Looks like another fantastic day!

 

[Longers]

I love the Dinosaur photo! Looks like another fantastic day!

Thanks - every day in Disney is a good day and I’m one very happy got.s right now - today was a little shorter in hours in the parks than yesterday so it probably felt a little more chilled.

Clearly we need to make up for that tomorrow!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

I hope you make Chris but that Mr Potato Head mug!!!!! I have a slight obsession with Disney mugs! That one is super cute!

Glad you loved Pandora and Fop! I can’t wait to experience. The fact that you comparednit to Soarin’ has planted such hope in my heart that I will be utterly amazed!!!

I must admit I am disappointed you didn’t feel blown away by Rivers of Light. After reading tripe reports, I feel like this is the general consensus. It makes me so sad because I feel like the message they are trying to portray is beautiful and a perfect endcap to a day at AK, but I think they may have missed the mark. I am nervous to see it in January. I have been trying to stay away from any pictures, even though I cheated and watched when it first opened, but I want to take it all in in person.

Your new camera effects are amazing! The picture of just the color in you Mickey ears envoked such a childlike wonder in my heart. Something about that photo reminds me of childhood.

Thanks for letting me live vicariously through you. You do Disney the right way. Do you ever sleep?!

So glad to be all caught up!!!!! My fastpass day is Monday... wish me luck for FOP!!

 

[Longers]

I hope you make Chris but that Mr Potato Head mug!!!!! I have a slight obsession with Disney mugs! That one is super cute!

Glad you loved Pandora and Fop! I can’t wait to experience. The fact that you comparednit to Soarin’ has planted such hope in my heart that I will be utterly amazed!!!

I must admit I am disappointed you didn’t feel blown away by Rivers of Light. After reading tripe reports, I feel like this is the general consensus. It makes me so sad because I feel like the message they are trying to portray is beautiful and a perfect endcap to a day at AK, but I think they may have missed the mark. I am nervous to see it in January. I have been trying to stay away from any pictures, even though I cheated and watched when it first opened, but I want to take it all in in person.

Your new camera effects are amazing! The picture of just the color in you Mickey ears envoked such a childlike wonder in my heart. Something about that photo reminds me of childhood.

Thanks for letting me live vicariously through you. You do Disney the right way. Do you ever sleep?!

So glad to be all caught up!!!!! My fastpass day is Monday... wish me luck for FOP!!

He hasn’t got that one yet but has added another 2 to our collection - we only have Disney mugs at home and we have too many!

You will not be disappointed with Pandora or FOP (I will keep my fingers crossed for you to get your FP). And I was sad about ROL - I’m not saying it was bad but just that I wouldn’t wait hours for it. You could love it so ignore all our comments - I don’t like fantasmic but others do - that could be down to the hard seats though!

And thanks for the comments on the photos - we have so many now that it’s getting silly - I virtually snap everything it all looks so georgeous and 8 want to preserve the memories forever -

Glad I could help your Disney addiction

 

[LisaBelle]

School kept me super busy this week. Thankfully it's the weekend and I am all caught up! First of all, thanks for the shout out! I am jealous of the nearly empty Universal. Your pictures are absolutely beautiful! I really enjoyed the ones of HEA. I am so glad that so many people who loved Wishes have been won over by HEA. It gives me hope that I will love it, too. I'm really looking forward to seeing Pandora. Your photos are stunning. Great choice on your new camera! Can't wait to see what's next!!

 

[Longers]

Friday 17th November

Ok, so I know things are getting pretty repetitive now as we’ve pretty much done everything (quite a few times over)

The good news for us is that all the people who were on our plane when we arrived are already on the plane home - so we’re on bonus days now!

I’m so glad I am not with them but my stomach and heart already feel heavy as I know things are drawing to a close for us - and I really don’t want that to happen. So we’re just going to carry on and make the most of the time we have left.

So back to today - we were up early to make Animal Kingdom opening - we had the last of our FOP fast passes today

We made it to the park and the usual rush headed to FOP - the queue for Navi was 30 mins but we joined the queue - we were on and off the ride in 16 mins - not bad and we were quite pleased with ourselves as we would still make FP number 1

We headed off to the safari - this ranks within our top 3 of safaris, the driver was ultra informative and she stopped for quite a while so you could get good photos, the animals were active, walking around and even posing for photos

 

[Longers]

After our safari we got some treats - we have snacks to use after all

I got mine and headed here to eat it - someone asked me to take a photo and we got talking. She was from Kent which is not that far from us in the UK and she is dating an American man and they met through some charity work she did in the US. She was here for a week to see him.

Chris returned with this - he had his eye on this Mickey all week - he joined in my conversation and once we parted ways said “is that someone from your forum” - No it wasn’t but it was good to chat anyway
.

(By the way Chris couldn’t finish all of this) so some did end up in the bin but he gave it a good go - it was marked as big enough for 2 so in a way it’s a good job he didn’t finish it.

We then headed back to Pandora for Our last FOP for this trip

The wait time was already at 240 mins

After we finished our ride the queue was 5 hours!

 

[Longers]

We said goodbye to Pandora and headed to Everest to see the yeti.

And then we said our goodbyes to Animal Kingdom for another year.

 

[Longers]

We headed for a quick trip to a sports shop on the 192 just a short drive from AK - I have 2 nephews who like NFL teams so I wanted to see if they had anything -
We managed to leave AK, and get to the sports shop and back to our hotel to drop things off within an hour (I know how to shop quickly!)

We were straight back out of our room and were in Epcot a short while later.

There was no wait for space shop earth so we went straight on

We checked out the times and most things were looking pretty good, living with land 5mins, soarin 25mins, test track 50mins, frozen 70mins Mission Space 10 mins - these were certainly better than a few days last week!

We headed around world showcase

And ended up in France for more pastries - this is not doing the waistline any good!

It was another beautiful day.

 

[Longers]

We wandered around just taking it all in

And shared an ice cream - I think we’d had too many cakes!

 

[Longers]

We popped into Mexico to see the three calebros

 

[Longers]

And then we took a night time stroll around - I don’t know how many steps I‘ve done today but my feet are killing me!