Daysleeper40
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2007
- Messages
- 526
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!
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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