#FrontierFlorida - the Trifecta Trip

Daysleeper40

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Table of Contents:

02/05 - Day 1 “Where we’re going, we don’t need any jumpers... or ancillary cameras”
03/05 - Day 2 "Leeeaving on a Jet Plane"
04/05 - Day 3 "The Bud Lite Lime Discovery"

05/05 - Day 4 "Heeey Boma.... Oooooh Boma!"
05/05 - Day 4 (Part 2) Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba
06/05 - Day 5 "Kowabunga!!!"

06/05 - Day 5 (Part 2) "When you wish upon a star"
06/05 - Day 5 (Part 3) "Ooooh, Ahhhh!"
07/05 - Day 6 "Heading for the Trails End"
07/05 - Day 6 (Part 2) "Heading for the Trails End"
08/05 - Day 7 "Superlative Skillets"
09/05 - Day 8 (Part 1) "Just how much magic can you pack in after packing up?"
09/05 - Day 8 (Part 2) "Just how much magic can you pack in after packing up?"



The adventure begins

(theme park geek points to everyone that 'gets' that reference!)

As is customary I will start by introducing the cast for those who may not know us already... I am Fi and my other half is Mark. We have been together for almost 12 years now and amongst other things love us a theme park. We first visited Florida in 2007 for the Ooo-de-lally Tour and then reprised this in 2011. Since that last trip in 2011 it would be an understatement to say a lot has happened. I don't want to dwell on this too much but I need to mention it to give some context to some of the things that will appear in this report. My dad passed away in November 2011 and less than a year later both my sister and I were diagnosed with cancer. My sister passed away in 2014. I have had various surgeries / chemotherapy and will be taking maintenance drugs for some time to come. My poor sister in law also had to endure serious surgery to her pituitary gland while all this was going on.
Obviously these events have had a massive impact on my whole family and I can't even begin to explain my own feelings about it all. So I'm not going to try. Let's just say that this was a bit of a special holiday and frankly - I think we deserved it!!

Right, on with the introductions:

FiMarkCornwall05Apr2015 086 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Here we are in all our glory at Rocky Beach in Cornwall. Mark is a film loving, list making, planner extraordinaire when it comes to our trips away. In addition to theme parks we also love zoos and he puts together the most awesome zoo tours. We’re going on one in September actually – can’t wait! I am the less organised, messy member of the duo and spend a lot of my time on my favourite hobby of photography. If anyone cares to take a look my Flickr link is below:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/daysleeper40/albums

I also spend a lot of time pandering to this little man:

Albie by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

This is Albie. He was my reward to myself after chemotherapy and kept me company as I was off work for a few months following one of my more extravagant surgeries. He is spoilt rotton, turned two the day before we set off and for this trip he would be visiting the cattery for the first time. We also have another cat called Weasel (don’t ask) who would be staying at home. She is about 400 years old, has thyroid issues and is completely deaf. She thinks Albie is a total knob and they do not mix at all... she would be staying at home to be cared for by Marks dad as she sleeps 99% of the time. Much less high maintenance than Albie!

I think that is all you need to know about the cast – so on with the interesting bit: the trip plan.

Our first visit in 2007 was the most ‘budget’ version – your standard 14 night effort and we stayed at the Sheraton Studio City on I-Drive. 2011 saw us back at the Sheraton but we decided to ‘go large’ on the extra experiences (Beluga interaction / tiger and Orang experience etc) and we extended our stay from 14 nights to 17. We loved the extra time – it makes such a big difference for only a few days – so we were set on a 17-nighter this time too. Having done basically all of the extra experiences on offer that we wanted to we thought it would be nice for this trip to be a bit more extravagant regarding the accommodation. We don’t really like to drive on holiday so had always previously used shuttles and the I-Ride trolly to get around. The Sheraton is in a great location and this had been fine – but it was time to up the ante and STAY ONSITE.

Errr... minor issue – onsite where???

We love all the non Disney parks as much if not more (let’s be honest – it’s more) than Disney but we wanted to visit them all. It became clear this would require a Trifecta of accommodations and this would become a trip of three legs:

Leg 1 – 6 nights at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
Leg 2 – 6 nights at the Renaissance at Seaworld Orlando
Leg 3 – 5 nights at Portofino Bay, Universal Resort

We booked everything through Virgin Holidays and explaining that we wanted all three hotels was quite entertaining!

With accommodation decided it was time to put together a plan of action. I know not everyone likes to plan and some are quite military about it... we are more of a happy medium. I think Disney requires some planning to get the best out of it – especially with the advent of Fast Pass Plus – and Busch Gardens is also a lot to do in a day so you don’t want to waste any time. We are much more relaxed about Seaworld and Universal though. The basic plan of attack was as follows:

02/05 – Albie to cattery, travel to airport for overnight stay
03/05 – Flight to Orlando, Hollywood Studios in the evening (specifically for Fantasmic)
04/05 – Epcot
05/05 – Blizzard Beach & Animal Kingdom
06/05 – Typhoon Lagoon & Magic Kingdom
07/05 – Animal Kingdom
08/05 – Hollywood Studios
09/05 – Magic Kingdom / Transfer to Renaissance
10/05 – Shopping Day
11/05 – Busch Gardens
12/05 – Seaworld
13/05 – Aquatica / Seaworld
14/05 – Discovery Cove
15/05 – Transfer to Portofino Bay, Blue Man Group in the evening
16/05 – IOA / Universal Studios
17/05 – IOA / Universal Studios
18/05 – IOA / Universal Studios
19/05 – IOA / Universal Studios
20/05 – Travel home

For the Disney foodies we also had these ADR’s:
04/05 – Kona Cafe dinner
05/05 – Boma Breakfast / Yak & Yeti Dinner
06/05 – Liberty Tree Tavern dinner
07/05 – Trails End dinner
08/05 – Whispering Canyon dinner
09/05 – Crystal Palace Character Breakfast / Be Our Guest lunch Fastpass
For anyone counting – yes, that is more than our dining plan credits. We chose to pay for Crystal Palace out of pocket as I’m not sure it is a great use of table service credits.

SO.

The plan was in place, we were both in a state of shock that something this good seemed to be happening without cancer or some other traumatic event intervening. We had been counting down to the holiday by watching one Disney movie a week for the 25 weeks preceding it – and also did a daily count down for 101 days of 101 things we were looking forward to. I’m not sure if these links will work but Mark did post it all to Twitter under these hash tags:

#25weeksofdisney:
https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%2325weeksofdisney&src=typd

#FrontierFlorida101:
https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23frontierflorida101&src=typd

Honestly – I would like to say we were excited the week leading up to the trip but there was actually a definite air of disbelief... interspersed with moments of excitement. I don’t think we’ve ever been less prepared for a holiday in terms of buying stuff / packing etc. We just didn’t think it would happen...

But it did – and I will be back shortly to pick up the story!
 
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Hi! :wave:

Firstly, sorry to hear about everything that has been happening over the past couple of years, but this def sounds like a perfect trip which you very much deserve!

Absolutely love the sound of Albie (he is gorgeous!) & Weasel! I hope Albie enjoyed his time at the cattery!

Looking forward to reading more. It sounds like an action packed trip & especially looking forward to hearing about Busch Gardens - we haven't been, but have it on our To Do list for the next trip!

Love the countdown idea also! :thumbsup2

Following along.
 
Thanks Jemma - Albie is a complex little character but I love him! Busch Gardens is amazing - I'd totally recommend it over Animal Kingdom but you'd need to like thrill rides to feel the same! I'd better get typing though as there is a lot to cover before the Busch Gardens day!
 
02/05/2015 – Day 1

“Where we’re going, we don’t need any jumpers (or ancillary cameras)”

The day had finally arrived – we were actually leaving!! First though, I had to get my Albie situated. We got up at about 09:15am and I did boring girl stuff like straightening my hair and then packed up Albie’s things for the Cattery. He had almost as much luggage as I did what with all the food, bedding, toys and litter tray. I’d picked out Country Lane Cattery and done a pre-visit so I knew he was going somewhere lovely... but I was worried about him. Call me a crazy cat lady but this was stressing me out. Drop off time was between 10:00 – 11:00 and after a minor disagreement with the satnav I set off with a very angry cat in a carrying box. He really doesn’t enjoy car journeys. Didn’t take long to get there and soon I was introducing him to his home for the next few weeks. He had very big eyes bless him and I felt horrible leaving him behind. He had what I call his ‘kitteny face’ on – which is this sort of innocent look that reminds me of when he was tiny. Bit like this bit think big wide eyes and more worry:

Albie 19 20130810 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

It was a relief to have him settled though and I headed back home confident that Dee – the owner of said cattery – would take good care of him. I returned via Asda for some lunch (just a sandwich and a wrap to share) and to pick up some last minute bits for the holiday. We then had a round of ‘house sorting’ and finished the packing. I still felt massively unprepared but I figured I had enough to keep me going for at least Leg 1 – and then I could go shopping!

I then spent an unnecessary amount of time debating what to wear for the journey. Jeans or leggings? Obviously leggings for comfort but what if my feet got cold as leggings would mean different shoes?? It is a testament to how knackered I was that it took me so long to realise that taking some socks in my hand luggage would probably mitigate this risk... a revolutionary idea I know!! Leggings it was – and for the record, it was the correct choice. On the subject of being knackered – quite apart from the fact we both work really hard in a relatively stressful environment – since my treatment I struggle with how tired I get. A lot of people suffer much worse fatigue – I would not put myself in that category but I do have to know when to admit defeat and not completely ruin myself. I was a bit concerned with how I was going to stand up to the plan we had in place and I did not want to miss out on stuff because of my stupid tiredness.
I distinctly remember getting really cold and bleurgh at this point so made myself a latte and then called my mum to catch up a bit and say goodbye. Revived by coffee, we left home at about 15:20 and got about 25 minutes into the journey when Mark said “Oh” in that kind of ‘I’ve just remembered something’ way. He’d forgotten his compact camera. We had a brief conflab about turning back and immediately decided against it – I had mine (in fact I have two as my old one is waterproof so good for waterparks) and he had his phone. You don’t really need two cameras – and we do tend to end up with duplicate shots. He was a bit annoyed with himself but no great shakes... on we trundled towards Gatwick.

Not too many more minutes passed before Mark looked around himself in a panicked fashion and said ‘you didn’t pick up my red did you?’ in a resigned tone. His ‘red’ is a zip up top. I had not picked it up. He had not picked it up. There was no ‘red’ in the car. He was in a t-shirt only for this journey. It was funny really as he’d been debating whether he would need it in the first place. I did start to wonder what else he’d forgotten at this point though – he is normally so organised. I think this was part of the disbelief issue kicking in – mentally we were clearly both a bit adrift! Like we were on the outside -looking at things happening to someone else. We knew we had the tickets and passports though so who needs a jumper? Especially when you’re heading for Florida!

We arrived at Gatwick with no further revelations and after a brief tour of the wrong short stay carpark we arrived at the valet parking area. Hurrah for valet parking – it makes things so much more relaxed. Hurrah also for twilight check in which was our next port of call.

P1020276 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We were actually about 25 minutes early but there were already people lined up waiting. Apart from the one man for First Class who was stood about an inch from the First Class desk just to make sure everyone was aware that he was in fact First Class. Not that I was jealous or anything ;) It didn’t take too long until we were at the front of the line though and successfully checked in. We had pre-booked a set of the 2 seats together at the back of the plane and there were no problems on that front. There is something very liberating about having checked your luggage the day before you travel – and knowing you don’t need to do it in the morning!
We have previously stayed at both the Hilton and the Sofitel as although they are a bit pricy it is also lovely not having to prat about getting shuttles or taxis. We were therefore delighted to learn that a new Premier Inn had opened literally over the road from the Sofitel – and the entrance to the North Terminal. Ok, you have to brave the outside world for about 60 seconds rather than mosy down the ‘covered walkway’ that the Sofitel offers, but it is a damn site cheaper. We were at the South Terminal for the parking / check in though and the food options on either side are minimal – so we decided to head straight for Giraffe and have a bit of dinner.

This is a bit of a tradition – we always go to this restaurant, even when it used to be a Frankie & Bennys. It is also a tradition for Mark to order this larger when we are travelling to America:

P1020282 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We were both getting into the swing of things now and starting to believe it was all really going to plan. We both had a lager and ordered some nachos to share:

P1020283 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

These completely flouted the ‘nothing spicy before travelling’ rule (because no one wants a dodgy tum on a flight) but they were very good. We had both chosen a burger and shared some onion rings. I discovered that I love sweet potato fries with BBQ sauce which I’d never considered putting together before. We were instructed to ‘Live, Eat, Love’ so felt it was important to throw ourselves into the eating.

P1020280 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Food porn...

Mark had the Rodeo Chicken burger with normal fries:

P1020285 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

I had the Mexican Chicken Burger with the aforementioned sweet potato fries:

P1020284 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020287 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Onion Rings:

P1020286 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

As you can see I was delighted with this dinner...

P1020288 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

It was in fact an epic burger and as neither of us really drink much anymore, one lager makes us very happy! There was some suggestion that we would be having pudding but we were both stuffed and knew we had some Colin Catterpillar fizzy sweets squirreled away in Mark’s hand luggage so we payed up and weebled our way to the North Terminal to check into the Premier Inn. I think this dinner cost about £45 – pretty reasonable I think.

The room was as expected and we we right at the top with a bit of a view of the runways:

P1020289 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020291 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We just crashed out at this point – showers and fizzy sweets and playing Professor Layton on my DS is all I can remember. Oh and a very unfair game of pugil stick wars on account of there being only one pugil stick...

20150502_185537 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We were in bed by 21:30 with much anticipation for the following day’s journey...
 
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Thanks Jemma - Albie is a complex little character but I love him! Busch Gardens is amazing - I'd totally recommend it over Animal Kingdom but you'd need to like thrill rides to feel the same! I'd better get typing though as there is a lot to cover before the Busch Gardens day!

Oh we Love the thrill rides. I think that is the one small thing about Disney - although they aren't going to offer as many big rides. But we still love the usual ones - RnRC, ToT, EE.

We are definitely making the trip to Busch Gardens. I have already been checking out the thrill rides they have to offer. Plus I want to do the Serengeti Safari.

Loving the photos so far!

Twilight check-in is a god send! We did it last year. I would also recommend the Bloc Hotel, which is right inside the South Terminal! After check-out, you turn left and are immediately at security! I would recommend it on any future trips.
 
03/05/2015 – Day 2

“Leeeeaving on a Jet Plane!”

Terrible, terrible night’s sleep. It went essentially ‘Hot / Cold / Hot / Anxious / Hotter / Need a wee / Cold / Hot / Anxious / Hot / Need another wee’ on a loop until about 5am at which point I was WIDE AWAKE and realised we’d failed to print any of the insurance details. Not a massive issue as I had them in my email but I was suddenly consumed by the need to email them to Mark.

That done I just waited until 7:15am when it was actually time to get up and head over to the terminal and take advantage of the V-Room lounge that we had booked. I actually ended up getting us the V-Room for free as I made a complaint about Virgin’s service. Long story short – they repeatedly told me that our Disney reference that we needed to use for My Disney Experience was not available – variously because it was being withheld by Disney or that we needed to be travelling within 90 days despite the fact that we were. I had to go through the ‘we ARE within 90 days’ conversation a number of times. They failed to be of any help at all and did not call me back when they told me they would. I ended up calling Disney directly who immediately gave me the number and asked if there was anything else they could help with. What irritated me the most is that the Virgin Customer Service people just made stuff up... had they just given me the number for Disney and said I would need to contact them I would have been fine with that. I digress – the point is, I complained and they refunded what we had paid for the V-Room as a good will gesture. Good!

So we checked out of the Premier Inn and headed off into what was a pretty bleak day... that covered walkway would have been handy!!


P1020292 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
You can however see in this picture how close the hotel is to the terminal – look behind and to the left of Mark:


P1020294 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


He is on this moving walkway thing that takes you directly to where the shuttle between the terminals:

P1020293 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


... and just to prove it here he is on the shuttle!!

P1020296 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Obviously this didn’t take long and in no time at all we were through security and in the V-Room. We actually had some kind of premium security pass with the V-Room booking but ended up not using it as when we asked where to go we got a very non committal answer and the normal line was fine anyway. The terminal has changed a bit since the last time we were there but to be honest we went straight to the lounge – didn’t bother looking at any of the shops etc. The V-Room was nice and quiet and we got this great table right by the window viewing the runway:


P1020300 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020297 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


Mark did subsequently decide he wasn’t a fan of the bucket seats though so we did move to a more normal table and chairs later on. I think the food and drink on offer in the V-Room is very good and well worth what you pay (or not as the case may be!) for it in addition to the general ambiance. We both had tea and orange juice and then I set off to have a look at the hot food – it took quite a while as the chef person was replenishing everything but eventually I returned with this:


P1020301 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


Sorry it isn’t the best picture but it is a ‘bacon benedict’ i.e. crumpet, bacon, poached egg, hollandaise sauce. It was bloody lovely and I could have scoffed another... but I wanted a Danish so I didn’t! Mark had the same hot food – and he followed it up with toffee cake. There is no picture of the toffee cake but he says it was very delicious. I had this little beauty:


P1020302 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


Nom nom nom!!


Boarding was at 10:15 so we just chilled in the lounge until it was time. I think I tried almost all of the drinks on offer including some type of cordial that I wish I had written down as it was lovely and now I can’t remember what it was. We headed off to Gate 17 at the requisite time and I was really happy as got a message from Dee at the cattery just as we were about to board to say that Albie was ok. I know, I know, crazy cat lady – but it was lovely to hear from her just as we were about to go out of mobile range. It made me happy. Our plane was Barbarella and it was about 30 minutes delay on our departure time so nothing really.


P1020308 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


We were loving the two seats together at the back of the plane – I had the window seat for this leg. Here is Mark – looking very happy to be on the plane!!


P1020314 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


Even back in 2007 they were dishing out pretzels for the first snack so I was not surprised to see these appear:


P1020316 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


...and obviously we got drinks too. Mark immediately started watching movies – I think he watched 3 on the outward journey. He really does love films. I put on the film ‘Wild’ which I missed at the cinema. It was ok – not as good as I hoped it would be. The film watching was however briefly interrupted by the arrival of the lunch menu:


P1020317 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


I was pleased to see the omission of curry. I don’t know why you’d want to eat curry on a longhaul flight. No thanks. I decided I would have the chicken and Mark opted for beef. I do like the way they pace the stuff that happens on these flights. There is never too long before a drink is being offered or you are picking food – or receiving lunch. True to form, it didn’t seem long at all before lunch was arriving. They started at the back so we easily got our choices. Mark absolutely adores plane food. Me less so – but this was pretty good. Everyone had the same salad / roll / pud:


P1020319 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
P1020320 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


My main:
P1020321 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


Marks main:
P1020322 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


Thumbs up all round – although Mark didn’t get any butter and failed to realise he should have any until he saw me finish mine! Lunch was followed by coffee and a chocolate and then a little while later we got a tiny lolly... awww!

P1020323 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


Seemed to make Mark happy...
P1020324 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

While Mark carried on watching movies I enjoyed the scenery and played more Professor Layton. I also watched an interesting programme about cats. I’d quite like to know where this is if anyone has any idea??

P1020326 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Of course the food kept coming and I have to say – the light afternoon tea bit has come on in leaps and bounds since our last trip and the silly finger sandwiches. This time we got a proper wrap, small back of crisps and a yummy Brodericks bar. Me likey!


P1020328 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We landed at about 15:30 and immigration took a while. Another plane from Manchester arrived at the same time so it was a LARGE queue. We were allowed to use the self serve machines though which surprised me as it has been 4 years since either of us was last in America. All pretty straight forward though so pleased to be able to use them. One thing I wasn’t pleased about was having to queue behind someone from the Manchester flight who was coughing and sneezing all over the place. We hung back quite a lot...
Our disbelief gremlin foxed us again at this point. We would normally have memorised where to go and what to do but beyond picking up bags and getting the shuttle we had no idea!

P1020335 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

This meant we ended up on the incorrect side of the terminal and on asking the Virgin Rep where to go she just pointed us towards the Mears counter where we were even though it wasn’t the right place. The Mears guy was very helpful though and gave us a voucher for the Magical Express! This was funny because Mark had really wanted to go on the Magical Express and I had kept saying it was just a Mears coach with nice paintwork. So he got his wish – and we headed over to the Wilderness Lodge queue. And then we queued a while longer... but eventually we were on the coach and set off at 17:30. I do think it is rubbish that it took that long but ho hum. There was an enormously fat American couple on the bus with us. As in - needed two seats each. I don’t mean to be horrible but I find it staggering how large some of the people we encountered were. After all my families health issues it just makes me a bit angry that people do this to themselves. They had brought snacks for the 30 minute bus journey. Obviously.


P1020337 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
P1020339 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Anyway... we were the second stop after Fort Wilderness and were met at the door by a person with an Ipad desperate to check us in. We were not about to argue! Check in was fine – we received our Magic Bands and lots of information about the resort and transport etc. I’ll be honest – I find the Disney service a bit much sometimes. I just wanted to go to our room! We escaped the check in desk after about 25 minutes and headed to room 6028. I had requested a high floor and we’d got one – hurrah!
This is the face of someone who doesn’t know they have been given the incorrect room number:

P1020341 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

There is no picture of my face as I traipsed back to the front desk.
The same person served me and it transpired he’d written it down wrong – should have been 6026. His brain was really not cooperating as he even wrote down the wrong number again when I went back... he was very embarrassed. Never mind though, we were soon in room 6026 and we were very happy with the location. The Roaring Fork was just down the elevator and round the corner so not far at all to get our drinks – and I had a sneaky suspicion that we would be able to see Wishes from our balcony.

P1020342 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020344 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We wasted no time though as we had a date at Hollywood Studios – with Fast Passes for both Tower of Terror and Fantasmic. We headed off at 18:50 and arrived at the park at 19:20 so not bad time at all considering we were at the mercy of the Disney transport! Tower of Terror is probably my favourite Disney ride so I was very happy – Mark likes it too.

P1020345 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

There was some kind of all star cheerleading extravaganza going on that weekend and the Fast Pass was much needed – I can’t remember what the standby line time was but it was LONG. After the ride we wanted to sit down, take it all in and have a bit of food. We’d allowed 2 quick service credits for this evening but we really were not that hungry so decided to split one instead. I am always a bit underwhelmed when I look at the dining options at Hollywood Studios so we had no real plan – we were just aiming for one of the quick service joints in that area of the park and found ourselves at Fairfax Fair with a Mac n Cheese hotdog, chips, drink and Worms n Dirt cupcake. This was surprisingly good and just what was needed to keep us going!


P1020346 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

You cannot really see it in the picture but the cupcake was awesome. Chocolately and gooey and with gummy sweets. What more could one wish for?The whole lot was free on the Dining Plan at a saving of $18.

Not long after we had eaten it was time to find some good seats for Fantasmic.

P1020347 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

I’m afraid I don’t have any good shots of the show itself – unsurprisingly none of them came out very well! It was very different to how I imagined it and I got a lot more wet than I’d anticipated – and cold as a result! It was a good show but it would definitely come in third against Wishes and Illuminations for me. I guess it is just different – and we did enjoy it. We were really happy that we’d managed to see it that evening as we didn’t have many other opportunities during our stay.

We headed straight back to the Wilderness Lodge after the show – the bus was busy but it didn’t take long. We picked up our refillable mugs at Roaring Fork (there had been a big queue earlier), got some hot drinks and had a wander round the resort to look at the pools etc before showers and collapsing back in the room... ready for our first full day in the morning.
 
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we love the Vroom great way to start a trip. The food looks to have improved since we went with Virgin in 2012 (although I don't eat plane food anyway but hey) and they finally have diet coke. I'm a firm believer in buying diet coke after security to go with my complimentary Bacardi :)

Definitely love DME but it is hit and miss how quickly you get going.

And well done going to a park - we never manage that either.
 
04/05/2015 – Day 3
“The Bud Lite Lime discovery”


Oh my god aircon can be cold if you leave it on the wrong setting.
We had rushed out the evening before to get to Hollywood Studios and then completely collapsed on our return. I don’t think it occurred to either of us to change the aircon setting but we REALLY should have. Rarely have I been as cold as I was at about 3am that morning. We’d gone for the sleep in separate beds options as let’s be honest – it is quite nice to have a bit of space when you are that tired – and I found myself curled into a tiny shivering ball in those early hours of the morning trying to weigh up the benefits of leaving the bed to turn the damn thing off. Thankfully Mark cracked before me and relinquished his covers to get it done. I fell back into a sort of frozen stupor until the alarm went off for our first full day. He told me in the morning that there was an extra blanket in the cupboard. Good to know.

SO – I think I mentioned that for Disney we had actually done a bit of pre-planning to make sure we got everything done that we wanted to. This consisted of where we would go each day, Fast Passes booked, what attractions we wanted to get done in what general order (to save traipsing around parks unnecessarily) and then any dining reservations. We’d also made a note of any quick services food places we particularly wanted to try. I’d taken this and typed up a page for each day that we could carry around and make notes on for writing this report... like this:

Daily Itinerary 04.05 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


As you can see – the plan was for a full day at Epcot and then dinner at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian resort. Hurrah!


We were at the bus stop for 8:15 having stopped off at the Roaring Fork for Mark to spend the first snack credit of the holiday on a grab n go breakfast. I’m not much of a brekky person really but Mark is - and I’d figured this would be a good way to use up all those snack credits. He chose a buttered croissant and ate it as we walked to the bus stop area. I know this is probably a sacrilegious use of a snack credit when you can get much more ‘value’ elsewhere – but it worked for us.

For anyone not familiar with the whole Disney Dining Plan frooha – here is the lowdown (If you already know this will be very dull... skip on my friends, skip on):
You can get yourself a free dining plan if you book your holiday at the right time and buy your park tickets along with the package. These are also sold at x$$$ per day if you are not lucky enough to have booked at the right time to get it for free. The free Dining Plan you end up with depends on the resort you are staying at. Disney resorts are split into Value, Moderate or Deluxe. The free Dining Plans you can get are ‘Quick Service’ if you are at a Value / Moderate resort, or the standard ‘Dining Plan’ if you are at a Deluxe. There is another ‘Deluxe Dining Plan’ you can pay for or pay to upgrade to... but you’d need to REALLY like eating to do so. It is an obscene amount of food. I digress...

The Wilderness Lodge is a Deluxe resort (get us!!) so we were on the ‘Dining Plan’. This gives you the following for each night of your stay:
1x Table Service Meal
1x Counter Service Meal
1x Snack
1x Refillable Resort Mug
A “Meal” includes entrée and non-alcoholic beverage at breakfast; entrée, dessert and non-alcoholic beverage at lunch and dinner. At a buffet you will receive a full buffet and beverage.
For free.
Nice!!


So, snack credit spent (saving us $3) we waited for the bus. There was a small patch of sun and I vividly remember Mark and me standing in the sun while everyone else waited in the shade. We were BADLY in need of some vitamin D – it was soon to be in copious supply. The bus arrived after a bit of a wait and we were off – arriving at Epcot in pretty good time. The plan had us heading for Soarin’ first and we were in line at 9:10. The queue wasn’t bad – about 15 minutes – and we were both surprised by how much we enjoyed the ride. Got to be honest – we were both a bit underwhelmed the one and only other time we’ve ridden Soarin’. I remember thinking it was ok – but I’d expected more, I think because lots of people had talked it up so much. I enjoyed it a LOT more this time – I still think that it needs re-filming in some kind of HD 3D extravaganza... but it is a good ride. From Soarin’ we went right next door and hopped on an unlikely favourite of mine. Mark and I both love a thrill ride so obviously Disney’s attractions can be a bit tame for us – and if you are talking tame ‘Living with the Land’ would be high on the list. It is essentially an educational boat ride about agriculture and suchlike. I love it!!
Here is Mark loving it too...



P1020380 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Ok – maybe he doesn’t love it quite as much as me. Goodness knows why – look at all those plants and that sand in the background. What’s not to like??!
It is very interesting though – I like spotting all the odd fruits. That is not a euphemism.

What was also very pleasing was the success of The Plan so far – we came out of Living with the Land to see a great big queue waiting to get on the ride. They were just breaking out the additional queue line paraphernalia for all these people coming straight from Soarin’. We were just ahead of the game which is exactly where we wanted to be. We had a fast pass for The Sea’s with Nemo and Friends at 10:10 and another one for Turtle Talk with Crush at 11:10. The idea was to do these plus all the other SeaBase stuff in between and then have lunch at Sunshine Seasons. All of these are in basically the same area of Epcot – we’d then head on to the other areas.

Turns out we did not need the Fast Pass for the Nemo ride – it was a total walk on. Mark has a lot of love for this ride – I like it too. It’s very clever how Nemo etc appear in with the real aquarium fish.



P1020384 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


After this we looked round the SeaBase area – love watching the Manatees and seeing all the other aquariums. The turtles were particularly impressive – I don’t remember there being as many last time. Maybe we were just lucky to see them this time. What we were also lucky to see was a research demonstration with the dolphins. This is a hopeless picture but it gives you an idea of what they were doing – it was a matching game. The dolphin was shown one picture and then had to go and pick the corresponding picture being projected onto one of three screens.



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This was very interesting. The dolphin had no problem picking the right picture when it was on a clear background but when they added context to the backgrounds (like rocks etc) the dolphin struggled to distinguish between them.
We watched this for a little while and then also saw a bit of the scuba demonstration where they put a diver into a tube and fill it with water.
It was then time for Turtle Talk which was as funny as ever – I really like the titbits of adult humour you find at Disney sometimes and Crush is a good example of this. I’m not sure how much we needed the Fast Pass for this – but we were not waiting long regardless. While we were in the queue I had one of those moments where you want to applaud someone for their turn of phrase. I often think this when in the company of Americans – they are so much more enthusiastic than the British. A little girl pointed out an eel or something to her dad and without missing a beat he pointed at her like she was a champion and said in a very triumphant manner “GOOD EYES ALLISSA!!!!”... Love it!
We were ready for our lunch after Crush and I was delighted to be going to Sunshine Seasons. We once ended up at a very disappointing quick service place at Epcot (Electric Umbrella) because I ‘forgot’ about Sunshine Seasons allegedly being one of the best to be found. I badly needed to rectify this mistake – and finally I would get my chance. Problem is I became overwhelmed with the choice and ended up with a sandwich. It was a massive sandwich though...

We both got a Turkey and Jack cheese Focaccia effort – mine with potato salad and Marks with slaw. He got a whoopee pie with his and I got carrot cake cupcake which was also on the large side:



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P1020406 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


To give this some context here is me with said massive sandwich... I’m holding the bit I’ve just carved off the main deal...


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... we both felt victorious on managing to eat the lot!



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The food here was really good – and I saw lots of other people with yummy stir fry’s etc that I would have happily scoffed. I was impressed with the choice on offer... and the potato salad was YUM. I don’t know what they put in it but it made me happy! This was fully covered by the Dining Plan at a saving of $36.
We had a feeling we would be a bit full after this lunch so we’d planned a mosey round World Showcase afterwards to give it time to settle. I remember the first time I read about Epcot I was very confused by World Showcase... I still am to be fair. When you think about it, it is a bit of an odd ‘attraction’ really – but we do like the topiaries!
Mark was particularly happy to find a Mike and Sully one and made me go into a kids play area to pose next to it. As in - into the fenced off kids bit. Without a kid. I’ll admit I was a bit scared of being rugby tackled by an overzealous mother or security type.



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Thankfully I made it out unscathed and we proceeded to pose in front of many a topiary...



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The posing became progressively more elaborate...



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This is easily my favourite of them all – I love the Lion King, I cried when we went to see the musical in the west end and they did the opening number. I was a bit drunk from the pre show refreshments at the time to be fair but still – it was very moving!



P1020433 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

All posed out we came upon Marks nemesis: Mission Space.

He almost hurled all over himself and the rest of the ‘crew’ last time we attempted this ride. I came out a bit shaky too. Funny really when you think about all the other coasters and wotnot that we love – but this thing (it is a space rocket simulator thingy) is all the stomach lurching, vomit inducing g-force with very little of the ‘weeeeeee!’ fun. Thankfully they have the less intense ‘green team’ option and we were not too proud to pick it! I’m glad we did. The less intense version is much more enjoyable. I think Mark was having flashbacks which may have marred his enjoyment slightly – but he was also glad to have conquered it this time. He even managed to press the right button at the right time (I was the Pilot – he was the engineer. Same roles as last time I think!). Winner.
I also think I was totally plausible as a NASA space rocket pilot.



P1020435 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
One attraction we’ve passed on whenever we’ve visited Epcot before is Ellen’s Energy adventure. It just sounded a bit dull to me – but we figured we may as well give it a try this time. We’d both failed to realise it was about 45 minutes long which you find out as you enter the building – but The Plan meant we had plenty of time so we sat down and waited to see what it was all about. There was an unnecessarily long pre-show thing - I’m not a massive fan of Ellen and I could have done with it being a bit shorter – before we boarded these big car things. It is difficult to explain – and not what I was expecting. I don’t know what I was expecting really but it was all a bit odd. The cars carry you round through various time periods and you learn about energy. It was... err... ok. I’d rather have had another go round the Living with the Land fruit spotting bonanza to be honest!

Next up was the best ride at Epcot – we had a 14:55 Fast Pass for Test Track and this time the Fast Pass was definitely a benefit. The standby Line was BIG – but we were at the front and designing our car in no time.



P1020437 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
This designing bit is new to us – I assume it was added when the ride was rebranded to Chevrolet. I like it – quite often the pseudo ‘you’re no longer queuing’ pre-ride gubbins gets on my nerves (I’m talking to you - Shrek at Universal) but this was good fun. We designed an awesome car too – it was all about the power. The ride was also great – the first bit gives me the giggles and the fast bit is FAST! The high score for the day was 223 and our car scored 208. Not bad at all.

Coming out of the ride is a bit random as there is essentially a Chevy showroom... but it does have this which made Mark happy:


Test Track 1 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Well... it made Mark happy after we waited FOREVER for the family in front of us to take 200 photos with the car. For each member of the family. I think it is just rude when you can see there is a queue waiting to take a picture or do something too. We saw quite a lot of examples of this - people who had no regard for anyone else. I guess they’d paid their money and they were going to do whatever the hell they wanted to. The worst offender of these was the ‘Wishes Incident’ ... but that is a story for another day.

Anyway – Test Track done we headed out of the park just in time to see the back of a Wilderness Lodge bus disappearing into the distance. Boooo! It was about 25 minutes for the next one to show up and we were on our way at 16:00. Once back in the resort we put on our swimmers, grabbed the refillable cups and headed to the pool via Roaring Fork. Oh – I should also mention the little friend left for us by Mousekeeping:



P1020447 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
We stole him too. He’s upstairs in the bathroom.
The pool was REALLY busy and we had to dump our stuff on just one lounger. I thought the main pool at Wildeness Lodge was on the small side – but I guess they want you in the parks rather than at the pool. I made my entrance via the pool slide and we splashed about quite happily for a bit. It was actually quite windy that day though so it did become a bit chilly. We got out and had a little walkabout before heading back to the room for showers and to get ready for dinner.



P1020455 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Mark sat on the balcony reading while I pratted about with my hair. It is interesting how quickly you lapse back into getting annoyed with your hair having had chemotherapy make 70% of it fall out. You’d think you’d just be happy to have hair – which you are – but old habits die hard... and swearing at my hair is a long standing habit!!
Mark was quite happy sat on the balcony though – and he spotted lots of turkey vultures flying around which was cool:
Having wrangled my hair into some kind of order we set off for the Polynesian Resort. I’d looked it up before hand and the best option seemed to be to get a boat to the Contemporary Resort and then get the monorail to the Poly.
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The boat took no time at all and it was definitely preferable to the buses! The skipper also told us a few things along the way which was interesting. I didn’t know that the original bit of the Contemporary (on the left in the below pic) was opened alongside Magic Kingdom in 1971. Might explain why I’ve always thought it looked a bit dated!



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It has some cool features though – like this photo opportunity and the fact that the monorail literally runs through the A-frame of the building.



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Honestly – I don’t think I would like to stay there but it was interesting to see it. The only other resort we had seriously considered was actually our final destination that evening – the Polynesian. Themed as you would imagine and also a ‘monorail resort’. It didn’t take long at all to get there from the Contemporary and we had time to have a look around and get a drink.



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I thought the pool was comparable to Wilderness Lodge and the ambiance was nice. I think we could definitely stay here. I also discovered Bud Lite Lime at this point (word to the wise – I’ve subsequently found this in Asda. You must try it if you haven’t already!) so the Polynesian will always have that awesome association!! I LOVE Bud Lite Lime. I also think I might have to start a campaign to get these aluminium bottles in the UK. They are so much better than glass – we had a lovely time sitting and drinking our ice cold beers by the lake.



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We ALSO got our first glimpse of the Castle while we were chugging these...



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BUT... we’d come here to eat, not sit around drinking Bud Lite Lime.


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We rocked up to Kona at 19:45 and were handed the obligatory pager. I think we managed to get about 45 seconds away from the podium before it went off and we returned to be seated at a two top. One thing I learned about Disney table service restaurants on this trip was that as a rule they are loud places. True to form we had a rather loud and obnoxious family on the next table when we arrived – the kind that let their six kids run around screaming and throwing action figures at people trying to eat their dinner. Thankfully they were served dessert and left not to long after we arrived – they left a hell of a mess behind them though.
I had been really looking forward to this dinner as I think the Kona menu has lots of interesting options on it.


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I was quite proud of myself as actually managed to take in the torrent of information given by the server about the drinks available on the plan and picked something more interesting than diet coke. Mark was totally flummoxed by it all and basically said ‘I’ll have what she’s having’ and so we both ended up with virgin raspberry pina colada – or ‘Lava Smoothies’ if you will:



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These were lovely – but very sweet. I don’t think Mark finished his as on top of all the food it got a bit much!
We then ordered potstickers to share as a starter, the duck entree for Mark and the Tuna one for me. This also came with pineapple bread and macadamia nut butter. The bread and butter were lovely – it was all very lovely actually:



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Pan Seared Duck Breast served with Mung, Adzuki and Cranberry beans with Chorizo Sausage and spinach in a Tamarind Gastrique (nope – I do not know what a gastrique is either! We took to calling this the Brown Dinner):



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Togarashi Spiced Ahi Tuna with tempura vegetables and red wine reduction:

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We were both really really pleased with our choices and would definitely recommend Kona. Had we not been on the Dining Plan I would not have ordered dessert – or maybe we would have shared one - but as it was free we couldn’t help ourselves:



P1020496 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
P1020498 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
That is some kind of apple tart thing and a chocolate dipping plate with fruit, coconut macaroons and brandy snaps. These were both so lovely but I was defeated even by fruit after all that had gone before. This is the problem with the Dining Plan – you end up ordering things to only have a few bites. It is very wasteful really but I just couldn’t finish it.


We both thought this dinner was lovely – Mark says the drink was definitely a step too far and I probably should have stopped eating that bread long before I did. I have a thing about pineapple though and it was pineapple bread!
As we had the Dining Plan the only thing we had to pay for was the Potstickers and the gratuity.
$9.04 - Potstickers
$14.50 - Gratuity
$87:00 – FREE!
We decided to travel back to Wilderness Lodge in a different way and got the monorail to the Magic Kingdom to check out the boat from here to our resort. For a second we considered going in to do some more theme parking but I was knackered by this point so we wandered in the direction of the boat dock. The boat was different to the one we’d got to the Contemporary – a bit bigger and more enclosed. There are no pictures but the seats that were outside had a LOT of midges lurking. Can’t really be helped when you are by the water but we decided to sit inside! We were back in the room in time to discover with much excitement that we could indeed see the Wishes fireworks from our balcony...

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...we then faffed with the aircon setting a bit and fell into bed.

With that extra blanket just in case.
 
I love your photos! The food looks absolutely gorgeous!

We bypassed Test Track. I don't know if it didn't appeal or because we loved Soarin' so much. But it is on the cards for next year.

We ate in Electric Umbrella and it was ok. I had the Chicken Caeser Salad which was fine, but I will be on the look out for Sunshine Seasons next time.

Wilderness Lodge looks lovely. Would love to stay there or Animal Lodge, but just can't quite squeeze it into the budget!

Looking forward to your next instalment!
 
04/05/2015 – Day 4 (Part 1)
“Heeeey Boma.... ooooooh Boma!”

There was much excitement afoot this morning as we had an 8:45am reservation to attend the fabled BOMA BREAKFAST BUFFET. Ooooooh!!! We’d both agreed that faffing with the Disney transport had the potential to completely ruin this experience so I had booked a cab the evening before and we were therefore on our way in plenty of time. It was quite an entertaining conversation booking the taxi actually – she started asking me which ‘house’ I wanted. I’d not a Scooby what she meant or that there was more than one bit of Animal Kingdom Lodge (AKL) to choose from - but thankfully she suggested it was probably Jambo House and we ended up in the right place! The cab cost $25 including tip which I think was worth it to arrive in a relaxed state.
Mark was really excited to see AKL – tbh if it wasn’t miles from everywhere else I think we could have ended up staying here. I thought the ambience was very similar to Wilderness Lodge – but with more animals obviously. The central lobby in both is very similar and I thought they both felt nice and relaxed. We were a tad early (which is how we always like to arrive!) so had a bit of time to look around and check out the pool. Again – totally comparable to WL and the Poly. They are all deluxe resorts so I guess that is no surprise. I’d be quite interested to see the facilities at one of the moderate resorts to see just how different they are.
As a nod to visiting AKL and the fact we were off to Animal Kingdom later in the day we’d both dressed appropriately. See if you can spot our ‘on theme’ t-shirts!

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We didn’t have long to wait before our reservation time and I was very pleased to see how quiet Boma was. I’d found Kona really loud the night before so I just assumed a breakfast buffet could be even louder. I was wrong though – it was all very chilled out. We were seated near a window and our server brought us coffee and the signature ‘Jungle Juice’ straight away. The juice was lovely – as was the coffee and our server.

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The buffet was expansive and very yummy indeed!! I have got pictures of all the various stations but suffice to say there was a lot of variety. From your standard American breakfast fair to more interesting African offerings and meat carving stations– I’d defy anyone not to find something they liked.
Our first trip to the buffet... I may have gone a bit heavy with the syrup and probably should have put the eggs / salmon / asparagus on a different plate. I always get carried away at buffets!


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I’ve never had a tater-tot before but having discovered them I could have scoffed about 1000.


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Mark couldn’t resist the sweet treats on his next trip – I went for more tater-tots and a completely unnecessary chocolate pancake:


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P1020534 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


We were both well and truly stuffed at this point – and as we had a date with Blizzard Beach we thought it was wise to step away from the buffet. We both really enjoyed Boma – the only disappointment was discovering that they no longer do Tonga Toast. I’ve been hearing about Tonga Toast for years and I actually made Mark ask a server where it was – but apparently it is no more. Gutted!!! Other than that it was great – I would defiantly return. The check came to $50 – this was covered by 2 table service dining plan credits so we just left a $10 tip.
The water parks don’t open until 10am so we just had enough time to catch a bus at about 9:40am and get there bang on opening. The plan was working well today!


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We have a lot of debate about the Florida water parks and which one is the best. For me I prefer Typhoon Lagoon to Blizzard Beach (at Disney) – but I think it is fair to say Mark has the opposite opinion. They are both great fun anyway and we were looking forward to our morning. We arrived just in time to see the person they’d picked out to open the park throw them self down Summit Plummit and then we were in and headed straight to locker rentals at the Beach Haus. A small locker was $8 + $5 deposit that they return when you bring the key back. We’d brought some of those trekking towel things that fold up tiny and they had a carabiner clip that fixed helpfully to the back of my bag. Got them from Mountain Warehouse – they were great and meant we didn’t have to lug big towels around or rent them:

http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/tr...lip-towel-large-70x150cm-p11506.aspx?cl=KHAKI

The point is – those small lockers are pretty small and we just about managed to cram in my little rucksack, the towels and our clothes. On the subject of my rucksack – I also picked this out especially for the trip and had asked my brother to get it as my Christmas present. I got the ‘Style 3 – Light Brown’ version of the bag on this link and it was PERFECT for theme-parking:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GFM-Fabric-Backpack-pocketed-HLKEK-13K/dp/B00X5ZH3HU/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1436702270&sr=8-24&keywords=rucksack

Loads of pockets – the front ones fit my compact camera perfectly – and just big enough to carry enough ‘stuff’ in an organised way. A standard size refillable mug fits in - which was really helpful when we got to Universal. Anyway, I digress... back to Blizzard Beach.


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Of course the first thing we did was ride the Chairlift to the very top of the park and take on the speed slide – Summit Plummit. For the sake of anyone who’s not been to Blizzard Beach I will link to the ride descriptions as that is probably easier than me trying to describe them! Summit Plummit is the signature ride of the park though and probably one of the scarier attractions at ANY Disney park. We both cheerfully threw ourselves down it and I arrived at the bottom with a MASSIVE bruise on my leg from the water hitting my calve. To be fair, the medication I now have to take causes me to bruise very easily (something to do with it reducing white cells / platelet counts) but I have to say it was a mighty impressive bruise from a water slide even so!! We both also agreed that this one hurt your back quite a bit. This is inevitable with big speed slides but I actually thought it was pretty bad at Blizzard Beach and you could see everyone’s red backs as they hobbled away from the slides. Not to be deterred I limped back to the Chairlift and we headed back up the mountain. Next up it was Slush Gusher (think mini Summit Plummit) and Teamboat Springs. This was Marks favourite of the day and I liked it a lot too. More fun and less pain! We did have to wait a bit for some more people to turn up though as I think you needed at least 4 to ride. One of the best raft rides I’ve been on.


We had done all the rides on the ‘Green Slopes’ at this point and so we moved over to the red and purple slopes. This is one thing I would say about water parks – try to have a plan of attack and you will use a LOT less energy running around and climbing up to get to the rides. The ‘Red Slope’ actually only has one attraction – but it has multiple slides and you can ride as a single or with a friend. I am always wary of double tube rides with Mark as frankly – he’s a bit mental. On our first visit to Florida he practically knocked me unconscious by causing us to fall off our tube in the Black Hole at Wet n Wild. I have never let him forget this!!! It really hurt...


So it was with some trepidation that I approached the double rider version of Runoff Rapids. Despit his best efforts to capsize us we made it to the bottom intact – and headed back up for the much more enjoyable single rider version! The single version was actually my favourite ride at Blizzard Beach. Next was a race on Downhill Double Dipper – Mark always wins when we race. He has a bit of a weight advantage.


Continuing the racing theme we took on the Snow Stormers toboggan style slides next. Mark won again. Obviously. My only hope is when he gets a rubbish start! You have to literally throw yourselves on to these to get the kind of start you need for a record breaking time. This is particularly true of the classic Toboggan Racers which was to be our last slide of the day. I’m usually stuck at the top like a beached whale trying to get started. If only they would let you do a running start ... but they won’t.
We were all slided out at this point and so grabbed some tubes and spent some time bobbing about in the wave pool – Melt Away Bay. I LOVE a wave pool and we both enjoyed a bit of relaxation. Mark volunteered to go and get the waterproof camera and we took some shots in the wave pool.


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We always look delighted at water parks!

...and I always look better under the water than above it!

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One of our favourite shots from the trip:

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You can see the top of Summit Plummit in the background in this one...

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Last on the agenda for Blizzard Beach was obviously Cross Country Creek – we did a full circuit of the park...

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Actually I lied – last on the agenda was one more trip up the Chairlift to take some pictures from the top of the mountain. If you look very carefully at the horizon you can see lots of landmarks including Tower of Terror:

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We really were done after this and did a quick change (making excellent use of our towels!) and got our locker deposit back. Our next destination was to be Animal Kingdom and the plan had us arriving somewhere between 13:30 and 14:30. We actually had a bit of a wait before a bus arrived – but we stepped into Animal Kingdom at exactly 13:30. We are clearly Disney planning gods ;)

Look out for Part 2 to see what we got up to next...
 
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04/05/2015 – Day 4 (Part 2)

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba

...we pick the story up as Mark and I arrive at Animal Kingdom after a fantastic morning dining at Boma and splashing around and zipping down slides at Blizzard Beach.

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We were both flagging a little bit at this point in the day but we knew we had a pretty relaxed afternoon in store. The plan had us on only a few rides and the rest was to be wandering the animal trails and generally chilling a bit:


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We took the obligatory shots in front of the Tree of Life and on the bridge where you can see Expedition Everest:

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We’d arrived early enough to do our ‘if early...’ option of Pangani Forest Trail first. I wish I had some good pictures to show because we saw the most adorable baby gorilla’s. I’ve got no passable pictures of the babies so you will just have to make do with one of dad:

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It was actually really nice and cool walking this trail as a lot of it is under trees. One of my favourite bits is the Hippo enclosure. They have a similar one at Busch Gardens which is better because it tends to be less busy – but it is still very cool and the hippo’s were obligingly active :)

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After we’d walked the whole trail it really was time to sit down. We’d identified Kusafiri as a good place to spend a snack credit and got an Elephant Ear pastry each and a big cold drink of Sprite to share. Cost out of pocket would have been $12 for the snacks but we only had to pay $2.99 for the drink.

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This was nice but tbh not the best snack we had. Still, it gave us a much needed energy boost and there was a handy little covered table-come-cave type thing where we could sit and enjoy them. We had a wander round Mombasa Market Place and I saw lots of nice fruit options that I wished I’d got instead! We also had a quick look round the shop to kill a bit of time before our 14:30 Fast Pass for Kilimanjaro Safari.

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P1020628 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020633 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

It was a good trip – I think the only animals we did not see were the Lions. I remember the standby line time seemed quite low but we walked past a SHEDLOAD of people as we made our way through the FP line so I’m not sure how accurate that was!
We had another Fast Pass at 15:30 for Festival of the Lion King so we used our spare time to go and look at the Tree of Life in more detail. It is very cool – I love all the carvings.

P1020645 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020642 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020637 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We also saw Balou and King Louie hanging around nearby!

P1020652 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

The Festival of the Lion King was next on the agenda and we were lining up at 15:30. I’m not sure how ‘worth it’ the Fast Pass was for this – you get to go in before everyone else and we were quite near the front of the line so got good seats in the Elephant Section. They were making all the Fast Pass people sit in that section though so if you’d joined the FP queue late you would be sat near the back.

I LOVED this show – one of my favourites from the whole trip. What’s not to like about Disney songs, dancers, acrobats and a bloke twirling a fire stick??! It was very impressive and as the songs from Lion King make me cry at the best of times I may have got a bit of water in my eyes (as my niece would say).

P1020667 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020677 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We stuck with the ‘show’ theme and went to ‘Tough to be a Bug’ next. Really like this one too – it is a very funny and clever 4D show. Not quite as impressive as the Festival but great fun all the same. Our last ride(s) of the day were on Expedition Everest. We had a Fast Pass for 17:00 but we absolutely did not need it. Total walk on and I’m glad it was because there was a massively annoying screaming girl behind us on our first ride. The type that starts screaming before you’ve even set off. The type that you want to punch in the face so they really have something to scream about!! So we rode it again minus the stupid girl and that was much better!! I remember being a bit underwhelmed by Expedition Everest on our last trip – I liked it more this time. We went off to look at the rapids and watch the gibbons for a bit before following our stomachs...

Dinner was booked in at Yak & Yeti with a 17:45 reservation. We were a tiny bit early I think but we were seated pretty quickly - next to a very entertaining pair of tables. They were one party but split into two tables of four / five. It was grandparents / parents / kids and they were variously having an argument and getting their knickers in a knot about paying the bill. It was funny – the granddad in particular had a great turn of phrase and confirmed to his daughter that he didn’t give a @#!* who heard him! They left not long after we arrived and things felt a bit calmer after that. The menu at Yak & Yeti is great – it took me ages to settle on what I would have:

P1020682 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Eventually we’d both decided though:

Mark – Kobe Burger & Fries / Sprite to drink
Fi – Steak & Shrimp / Lemonade to drink

P1020686 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020683 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Pudding was an easier decision... I’ve been wanting this fried wonton / pineapple thing for about five years. Mark had Mango pie – he loves mango so this made him very happy.

P1020687 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
P1020689 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

The only problem was how MASSIVE my dessert was. Oh my god what a waste but I could barely finish any of it. They could halve this in size and it would still be more than enough! This is my plate once I’d shoved down as much I could manage:

P1020691 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

The check came to $78.31 but it was all covered so we just had to leave a tip. Unbelievably after eating that much we managed to make it out of the park, spot our bus and actually RUN for it! We made it though so were on our way back to the Lodge at 19:20. It was nice to get back and be able to have a look round. We went to the shop to try on silly hats, looked round the lobby and went to see the Fire Rock water geyser go off.

P1020694 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020700 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020701 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020702 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020705 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1020709 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

I was completely done in at this point and just about managed a shower before collapsing in bed. I was out of it before 21:30. Mark watched a bit of the Electrical Water Parade from the balcony but said he was asleep before Wishes at 22:00 as he did not remember hearing it. I think when you are that tired it means it has been a great days theme-parking :)
 
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Love the pictures again!

The more reviews I see of Boma, the more I am definitely making a reservation for it. I think we will definitely do a dinner at it, but looking at your pics, breakfast looks great too!

I’ve never had a tater-tot before but having discovered them I could have scoffed about 1000.

What is a tater-tot?! :confused: Am I missing out on something delicious at Disney?

Kilimanjaro Safari was lovely. One of my favourite memories from last year's trip. Next year, we are hoping to do the Wild Africa Trek.

Looking forward to the next instalment.
 
Love the pictures again!

The more reviews I see of Boma, the more I am definitely making a reservation for it. I think we will definitely do a dinner at it, but looking at your pics, breakfast looks great too!



What is a tater-tot?! :confused: Am I missing out on something delicious at Disney?

Kilimanjaro Safari was lovely. One of my favourite memories from last year's trip. Next year, we are hoping to do the Wild Africa Trek.

Looking forward to the next instalment.

Thank you - and lol! I believe tater-tots are pretty standard american breakfast fair tbh. Little crispy fried potato ball thingies. Salty and incredibly bad for you - I loved them!!
 
06/05/2015 – Day 5 (Part 1)

“Kowabunga!!!!”


This was going to be a LOOOOOONG and fun-packed day:

Daily Itinerary 06.05 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

It was to be another waterpark morning... and this time it way MY favourite – Typhoon Lagoon! We were up at 8:10am and I went straight down to Roaring Fork with the refillable mugs for some tea / coffee. Like a complete muppet I put creamer in Mark’s tea by mistake though... so he just shared my coffee. For the record – creamer in tea is revolting.

We were at the bus stop in good time but waited for too long for a bus. There was a trainee bus driver who arrived in one that should have been DTD and Typhoon Lagoon but she was adamant it was only going to DTD. The next bus driver confirmed she had been wrong – which was a bit annoying but we were finally on the bus at 9:40am and so arrived at about 10:05 at the water park so it was all good. We popped our stuff straight into a locker and were splashing around in no time.

First up was Humunga Kowabunga which is big and fast but doesn’t hurt like the more extreme water slides do so I like it! Same goes for Storm Slides – and obviously at this point Mark had won all the races... he always does on water slides.

P5060075 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Next up it was all the ‘Falls’ slides – Gangplank, Keelhall and Mayday. Gangplank is great fun – a big, multi person raft ride. I think this is Mark’s favourite at Typhoon Lagoon... but Keelhall is most definitely not his favourite. This one cracks me up – it is just sooo bumpy. The Disney blurb says: “Feel the force of whitewater rapids as you rush along a course lined with boulders...”. Yes people – BOULDERS. Don’t know about you but boulders are exactly the kind of feature I’d incorporate into a water slide.


Mayday Falls is the winner for me by a country mile – it is pitched at exactly the right level imo. A little bit thrilling, but you’re on a tube so it doesn’t hurt, and it goes on for long enough that it is not just a watery blur! I think this is my favourite ride overall at Typhoon Lagoon – although the next one comes a very close second. Crush ‘n’ Gusher is actually three ‘slides’ – and all of them propel you up inclines as well as your more conventional sliding down of them. We rode Banana first, then Pinapple and Coconut last. There isn’t a lot to choose between them – although Banana Blaster was single rider only for us whereas you can have up to 3 (with one being a kid I think) on the other two. They are fantastic fun – little bit different!

We’d done all of the slides at this point so headed over to the surf pool... I had been looking forward to this for AGES. Typhoon Lagoon has some big kahunas! We took the camera in too...



P5060079 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P5060076 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P5060083 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


That last photo may be my favourite of the whole trip!!

After we’d worn ourselves out surfing the big waves we thought a nice relaxing trip round Castaway Creek would be the way forward. It was not relaxing at all though – way way too busy for us so we abandoned that idea pretty swiftly and headed over to the Shark Reef instead.

P5060101 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

This is what I love about Typhoon Lagoon – it is not just your standard water slides, you get to swim with sharks and rays too! The reef was actually a lot quieter than the lazy river had been – we were kitted out and ready to go in no time.

P5060103 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P5060105 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P5060104 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

This was obviously good fun – although Mark had the camera and came away with the world’s worst attempt at a picture of a shark. I’m not even going to bother to post it!

We made a bit of an error at this point (although it later on led us to a bit of good fortune) – the plan had us going to Leaning Palms for a bite to eat before heading onwards. We were both a bit ambivalent about this as water park food is not exactly known to be the best... so we went against the plan and went to get changed and leave instead. The getting changed bit was fine – I came out to find Mark looking very happy with himself as somehow managed to procure this souvenir bag while I was still faffing about in the changing room:

P1020718 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Then we waited. And we waited. And I got bitten about 1000 times by mosquitos. Then we waited some more. Eventually a bus arrived that was heading our way – we could definitely have had lunch in the time we were waiting. Grrr to lost time – but never mind... we were headed back to Wilderness Lodge to drop off our swimmers and then we were going to the MAGIC KINGDOM for all sorts of delights! I’ll tell you about it in part 2...
 
Hey you're back. Sounds like s great day at TL, never been bit at Disney, hope it soon cleared up.
 

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