17 Summer nights TR Complete

Day 5 - Park hopping

The plan this morning was to get to MK for the welcome show. Unfortunately we were in the bag check line as it was happening, so will have to try again another day. We rode PPF via standby, then went to Gastons Tavern to get a LeFous brew to drink whilst waiting for Gaston to appear. Had a fun M&G with him, as you'd expect. We also rode teacups and the TTA before catching monorail to EPCOT.

Here we used a FP to ride Soarin, which we'd been looking forward to for the last 4 years! Then headed to Teppan Edo for lunch. We had a fantastic lunch, both the food and the company were great. Communal dining can sometimes be great and sometimes be quite awkward, but the couple we were sat with were lovely, there were 3 empty seats at out table as obviously a party of 3 hadn't turned up. But the 5 of us chatted throughout lunch and it turned out that they were staying at WL as well

On the way back to FW we stopped for a photopass photo overlooking the French Pavilion which is a copy of the photo that I have in a WL frame back home, taken 4 years ago.

We also stopped at Club Cool, and yes, I tasted Beverly It actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I wouldn't choose to drink it again though.

We rode The Seas with Nemo, looked around the aquarium and enjoyed watching divers feed the fish. We saw Crush - totally righteous, dude

Finally we rode SE, this was the first time for the girls and as they tend not to enjoy really dark rides, I was a bit concerned they may not enjoy it, but thankfully they loved it and want to go on again, at some point.

This has been our longest day out so far. We are having to take it really slowly as the heat, as expected, is sapping the girls energy so regular down time back at WL is needed to avoid meltdowns, and I've witnessed loads in the few days I've been here!

Highlight - Lunch at Teppan Edo
Thoughts - other people, whether they be guests or CMs, can make a huge impact on the overall enjoyment of a vacation.
Autograph count = 11

Day 6

Animal Kingdom

Had a relaxed morning down at Hidden Springs pool (the smaller pool). We had the pool to ourselves for about an hour
Then it was back to AK for the afternoon, and I'd planned our FPs for FOTLK and Nemo the Musical to make it quite a relaxed day without too much rushing around. We also rode KS again. Managed to fit in a couple of character M&G with Pocahontas and Baloo and King Louie before heading to AKL for dinner at Boma. We all agreed we could eat at Boma everyday for the rest of our holiday and not get bored of it. I love the food, there is so much variety and it is delicious. The server was excellent as well. Tusker House and Boma are definitely top of our favourite restaurants list, atm.

After dinner we browsed in the gift shop and the girls bought a pin each and we all traded some pins with the cms there.
We returned to WL via MK and could smell the campfire on the beach as we walked up the dock, so decided to have a toasted marshmallow to end our evening.

Highlight : Dinner at Boma
Thoughts : Pin trading is a lot of fun - today I traded my first pin
Autograph count = 13

These are my 'new' pins

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Day 7

We've been here almost a week already??!!!

Today we had an invitation from Cinderella to dine with her and her princess friends at her castle for lunch. We took our time again getting ready. The girls were Disney Bounding again today - Georgia as Ariel and Lucy as Snow White. We caught the boat about 11am and first had a look round The Emporium where more pins were traded, then headed to our first FP - Under the Sea, cute ride .
It was then time for our royal appointment, so we checked in and met Cinderella, then had a 10min wait before being shown to our table, which was only 1 table away from the window, so I was pretty pleased with that. We had no idea which princesses we would see so I asked our server and she didn't know either. There were no princesses in the room at the time, obviously they must come out for set sessions. Anyway, the 1st princess was announced - Snow White Perfect! then Aurora was announced, then.... Ariel Both the princesses we were hoping for. Finally Jasmine, which was great as she wasn't with Aladdin the other day when we had lined up hoping to see her. It was a lovely lunch. I had the pork tenderloin, followed by a white chocolate and jasmine tea mousse and loved every bit of it All in all, CRT was a huge success for us, it really was a special occasion and I'm glad we did it.

So after that we had another M&G with Ariel, who had quickly changed back into a mermaid Then we went to watch the afternoon parade. We got to Liberty Square just as the parade was starting and managed to find a raised porch area in the shade. Then it was yet another ride on TTA and Buzz followed by CoP, 2 rides on Prince Charmings Carousel and PhilharMagic. We watched the Rainy Day Cavalcade, then back to WL to toast marshmallows.

Highlight - The whole CRT experience
Thoughts - Disney Bounding is a bit like a secret club, only a few people 'get it', so it's lovely when the occasional guest comments on the outfits. Obviously, CMs and particularly characters notice the details.
Autograph count = 17

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Thank you, they really got into the whole Disneybounding thing. We got the starfish clip from Ebay

Day 8

Park hopping

Today was our only chance to use Morning EMH at MK, so we dragged ourselves out to catch the first boat and made it just in time to see the welcome show

We headed straight to Fantasyland along with the hundreds who were rushing to 7DMT and A&E and rode Pooh, Dumbo, Teacups and the carousel twice. On the 2nd ride we had Anastasia and Drizella ride the horses just behind us So we followed them off and headed with them to their M&G area where we got autographs and photos. The girls asked them who the best singer was. They didn't really answer but instead Drizella sang 'Sing sweet nightingale' whilst Anastasia did 'interpretative dance'.
We got in line for Cinderella and Rapunzel. We had to wait 30mins but 4 years ago we had to wait over an hour for Rapunzel so I suppose that's not too bad (although Flynn was with her then, so he was worth waiting for )

We then rode Buzz and TTA again and also saw Monsters Inc Laughter show before slowly making our way down Main street via Starbucks, the candy store anda popcorn cart

We were headed to AKL for lunch at Sanaa. Thank you to all of you who recommended it because we all loved it We had the bread service, then both Lucy and I had the butter chicken and it was delicious whilst Georgia had that famous african/indian dish.... a cheeseburger (she doesn't like anything with even a hint of spice). I'll post photos of our desserts at the end because they were amazing as well. Top picture is G's Peanut Butter mousse Turtle, middle is my trio of desserts, choc mousse, cheesecake and kulfi, bottom photo is L's Cookies n milk dessert

Feeling full we headed to Epcot to ride SE, Soarin, LWTL and a M&G with Mickey and pals and a drink or two at Club Cool. It was about 5pm at this point and we were all feeling hot and tired so headed back to WL and managed to just get inside before the heavens opened and there was the usual Florida storm. No toasting marshmallows tonight

Highlight - making it to morning EMH (it was a bit of a struggle getting the girls up and ready!)
Thoughts - EMHs are great
Autograph count = 21

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Day 9

We started this morning with breakfast at Ohanas with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. It was great to meet Lilo and Stitch together but other than that it was just an 'ok' experience. Both the food and service were satisfactory. IMO, CP is by far a better character meal.

We haven't done much shopping up till now, so we looked in the Poly gift shops, then decided as we were going to go past GF on the monorail we may as well look in their gift shops and then obviously we had to stop at the contemporary for some shopping so by the end of this we had several bags!!! Think I may need to buy a new suitcase for the flight home We also stopped at the TTC to collect a camera we had managed to lose a couple of days ago so it really was a full resort monorail crawl

Went for a swim in the afternoon then back to the room to get ready for a FP starting at 4:30 to meet Anna and Elsa. G disneybounded as Anna again, Lucy as Olaf and I sort of went for an Elsa look. We only had a very short wait with FP and we met Anna first. After the great experience at HS we were really looking forward to interacting with her and......honestly I don't think she could have been LESS enthusiastic if she'd tried. She mentioned about G having similar hair and muttered a few other obviously scripted lines and that was it. Thankfully Elsa was a lot better, picked up on all of us disneybounding and was generally lovely and queen like. We came out very thankful that we hadn't waited in the 90min standby line for that

We rode PPF with a FP then it was time for our adr at BOG. We loved seeing inside the castle and the atmosphere and the service was good, but the food? Not convinced about it Everything seemed highly over seasoned to me, it was ok but didn't 'wow' me. We do have an adr for breakfast towards the end of our holiday, so may or may not be back. I will admit though, that the grey stuff was delicious. We had FP to ride 7DMT but it was down so we used our 'free' FP to ride Buzz and we also rode TTA and the carousel again. This was our first evening in the MK and we all loved seeing it all lit up. I would have liked to stay and see the parade but they announced that it was delayed due to inclement weather and Lucy was getting very tired at this point so caught the boat back to WL.

Highlight - Having a fun morning shopping at the resorts as they were generally quieter than park shops
Thoughts - This marks the half way point of our trip. Feels like we're only just getting started
Autograph count = 26

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Day 10

We had a bit of a lie in this morning, had breakfast and went swimming. Then headed to Epcot for the afternoon. We revisited some of our favourite attractions - SE, Soarin, Club Cool. We also watched The Circle of Life film and had lunch at Sunshine Seasons, which was a nice change from the standard CS food Then visited Canada and watched the circle vision film, visited the UK just to see if we could find some Cadburys chocolate, but discovered they could no longer import it. We did buy a Mars Bar and Turkish Delight bar for 4 times the price we would pay for it in the UK but we were desperate for british chocolate. We visited France but the lovely fountain wasn't working otherwise we would have stopped for a photopass photo as we did 4 years ago.

Then it was nearly time for our ADR at Cape May Cafe so for the first time we walked out via the international gateway to BC. Wow, it is so close! I hadn't realized it was literally a few minutes slow walk. We are staying at BCV from Thursday for 3 nights so looking forward to using the IG entrance/exit. The CMC buffet was good but the food was more warm than hot. If we were paying OOP for our meals there is no way I would book buffets as the 3 of us do not eat enough to justify spending the price for a buffet, but as we have free Dining then buffets have been a good option for us.

After dinner we took the bus to DTD and of course visited World of Disney and just a few of the other shops. I picked up a couple of presents for people at home inc a salt/spice mix called 'Florida Sunshine' so I am literally bringing Florida sunshine back with me

Back at WL we sat on the beach for a while just soaking up the beauty of it all, then Lucy needed her bed and Georgia and I discovered we could watch a tiny bit of the 'floating electrical pageant' between a gap in the trees from our balcony

Highlight - eventually making it round to see some WS pavilions as it's one of my favourite parts of WDW.
Thoughts - a lot of guests complain a lot about waiting in line, but so often it's guests who slow processes down by not following instructions like move all the way across the row, filling in all gaps, opening bags ready for bag check and collapsing strollers before getting on a bus or boat. There was a guest who had a double stroller and tried to get on a small boat leaving WL and when they were asked to collapse it they didn't know how to. It took 5 mins and the help of about 4 other guests on the boat to collapse it. Not sure if they ever managed to put it back up again
Autograph count = still 26

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Day 11

We managed to get down to the bus stop before 8am this morning which meant we got to HS early enough to be close to the front of the line and were riding TSM by 8:55am We came out and went straight back into the FP line to ride it for a 2nd time We saw VoTLM then my original plan had us going to Animation Academy which we obviously couldn't do so we watched the Muppets again then we had a choice of shows - BATB, Indy or Frozen. We decided on Frozen as the girls really wanted to see it again and it was the only one with air-con! The narrators weren't as good as the ones we saw last time. All the other characters were the same but we had obviously seen the best narrators 1st time round so it was a bit of a let down. We had lunch at the Backlot Express before catching bus to WL.

Spent the afternoon swimming then got ready to go to HDDR . I already knew that this was going to be a highlight of the trip for me, and I wasn't disappointed. The show was as fantastic as I remembered it. We had a great table just by the musicians. We loved every moment of it.

Returned to WL by boat and watched the floating electrical pageant, this time from the beach

Highlight - HDDR
Thoughts - It amazes me that HDDR has been going for so long and has stayed at such a high standard of show.

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Day 12

Today we left Disney The reason being that Lucy is a HUGE Harry Potter fan so although it was an expensive day out, having come all this way it made sense to see WWoHP at least once. We had a great time exploring Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. We loved the ride on Hogswarts Express. The girls got chosen in Olivanders and 2 wands 'chose' them which was a most magical experience. It was also very expensive as we of course bought the wands that chose them

We had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, and I think Disney could learn something from Universal here. They have a system where you order your food, then a server shows you to a table. This stops people from reserving tables and it stops adults from elbowing children out of the way in order to reach an empty table - this has happened to us a few times as the girls usually find us a table whilst i place our order at CS places. There was also a basket on the table with cutlery, napkins, ketchup etc so the whole lunch was really hassle free. The food was delicious as well. 10/10 for this lunch

I still love my magic band though, and found it annoying constantly having to dig out my purse for cash or credit card and found my self constantly checking that I still had our park tickets safe. Magic bands make it so easy when in the parks.

It was a great day out but it was even better to see the 'WDW' sign on the way back and then to arrive at WL and walk into the lobby.

Highlights - The Olivanders experience
Thoughts - I'm happiest when I'm at Disney.

Day 13

We started the day with breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. We met Mary Poppins, Mad Hatter, Alice, Tigger and Pooh. So 5 characters which is the most we've met at a character meal. The food was good, I loved the Strawberry soup

We then went to say good bye to Animal Kingdom as this will prob be our last chance to visit this trip We walked the Maharaja Jungle Trek, saw Flights of Wonder and FoTLK. We then went back to WL to cool off in our room as it was particularly hot and humid day today.

Then late afternoon we took the boat to MK just in time to see the Flag Retreat. We visited talking Mickey and Tinkerbell. We rode HM, Splash and Magic Carpets. We bought some popcorn to eat whilst waiting for the MSEP from our FP location. I'll post a photo of our view just before it began Lucy was struggling with the heat and tiredness at this point so we hung out in the Emporium after to cool her down and then headed for the boat. We timed it just right and caught a boat that left at 10pm so we watched Wishes whilst sailing back to WL.

Highlight - Our view of the castle
Thoughts - Splash is a perfect ride when it is over 90F!
Autograph count = 31

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Day 14

We had to go to DTD this morning because as part of the UK package we got a $200 gift card. Of course, it couldn't be as simple as them crediting it to our room account. We had to collect it from World of Disney. We went swimming in the afternoon then headed to MK just as the dark clouds rolled in.

We had intermittent rain throughout the evening but we put ponchos on and carried on. We rode all our favourite rides, some of them twice. We had FPs for Splash and 7DMT. Both rides went down so rather than hanging around hoping they would reopen we used them to ride Buzz and I got my best score yet, although still only a Space Ace.

We ended the evening by watching Wishes from the FP area. I really liked this use of a FP. I know it is off to one side slightly but we all appreciated being able to sit on the artificial grass (on our ponchos!), with space around us.

We left the park surprisingly efficiently and managed to catch the first boat back to WL.

Highlight - Watching Wishes from the FP area
Thoughts - Checking out of WL tomorrow I love this resort Good news is we are checking into BCV for 3 more nights

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