The Ferret's Florida Funtime

Our hotel for the first night .

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Our AMAZING view

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Day 2 ;
More travel.
Up early and back into the main terminal.
The new security at Gatwick is a breeze and we whisked right through.Then straight on into the Virgin V-room.
This is a well recommended thing to do if you are flying with VA.Snagged seats in the kid free area.
Breakfast first;

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Flight was a mere 9 hrs 20 mins .
Managed to watch The Hobbit,Wreck it Ralph and The last stand.The updated media works excellently.No more waiting until all the films are finished until you watch the next one.Onboard all was nice and clean and the food was good.
When we touched down in America we joined the huge line at immigration and settled in to an hour and a half wait...
We cleared that and got our cases that looked very lonely on the carousel (they must have thought we had forgotten them).Popped over to the B-side of the airport to collect our trusty steed for the adventure from Alamo.Compact car.no upgrade.If you have all your info from Virgin i recomend going to this side as there was next to no wait to be seen by the rep and didn't have to see the virgin people .
Our hire car;

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Ok Ok this really was our hire car

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Oh all right ... here is the real wheels

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So having boarded our trusty steed we set out for the hotel.After a slight mis-calculation we headed off down the 417.Quick warning for the uninformed ,when exiting the turnpike at exit 6 you need exact change to go through the toll booth just after the off ramp as it only has an exact change or sunpass choice.After this minor panic (we had no change so just went through) everything went smoothly to the Hotel.
We checked in and found we had been put in the Rancho's (our favorite section).We had faxed a request for here through to the hotel 5 days before travel so it might have helped.We were located in a nice corner room with a cracking view over the lake.
Our digs for the fortnight;

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views from our windows;

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Popped out to Publix to pick up some provisions (sierra mist etc).after filling up the fridge(be carefull about putting stuff too far back in it as it tends to ice things right at the back) we boarded a bus to DTD for some important shopping.
Mrs F picked up some new sunglasses and her Disney hat for this trip.I got a pluch mickey that is the same as my tattoo
Stopped for Tea at the Earl of Sandwich and both opted for the Hawaiian BBQ chicken sandwich (very yummy)
Got back to the resort for about 11:30pm US 4:30am UK to get ready for tomorrows big adventure.

Yes it is Coronado Springs

Tuesday 7th May
6:30 alarm to be at the Magic Kingdom for opening

The sign says it all;

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We watched the opening show at the train station and were then let into the park.
once under the train station we swung a sharp right into the town hall to collect our photopass + and got straight in line to visit with the princesses . We met Rapunzel,Aurora and Cinderella.there was hardly anyone in there and they all had a good chat with Mrs F .Rapunzel was very impressed with Donna's tiara tattoo and said she kept hers safe in her satchel.

My Princess with Rapunzel;

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Next up was Aurora who offered to send me dragon hunting with Phillip to teach me how to be romantic.
Last in line was Cinderella.
We quick popped into the Emporium and Donna picked up a new backpack for the trip.
At this point we though it best to head straight to the new fantasy land section before the lines got too long.

New Fantasyland entranceway;

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First up the Little Mermaid ride.It was a 20 minute wait posted outside and that was roughly how long it took.We both really liked this ride and the queue area.Lots of fun watching out for crabs .This was swiftly followed by a meeting with Ariel herself.
She asked us if were both pirates as we both had so many tattoo's and was very impressed with the tattoo i have of her on the back of my leg.

Ariel and the Pirates;

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999 Happy haunts up next and we chose the graveyard route as there was minimal wait time.All looks suitably creepy and the interactive graves are a nice touch.
Straight to the mountain ranges from here. Splash first.It all looks fantastic and the audioanimatronics are all working well.

Look Ma .. No hands;

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After the rinse cycle comes the dry cycle so straight off to Thunder Mountain to hang on to our hats and glasses.Lunch stop next at Casey's corner (them corndog nuggets have me hooked).
Refreshed and raring to go we headed off into Adventureland and snuck in to see the Fairies. Tinkerbell and Rosetta were meeting .Pics snapped we headed off to voyage with some fellow Pirates.Before we got there we were accosted by an eagle eyed photographer who took our picture in front of the ride

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.After Buckling our swashes we moved over to Tommorowland.
By now the park had filled up considerably and Buzz and the peoplemover had HUGE lines so we opted for the fast action Carousel of Progress.It still is a great big beautiful tomorrow.Next up a stroll to look around the new circus area.Looks very nice and shiny.We decided to live to fight another day and exited the park for the day after a good look through most of the shops.

Wednesday 8th

Early start again.
Off to Hollywood Studios for 8:30 park opening.
Did the usual rush for TSMM fast pass straight off. Snuck into the standby line and was on in 10 minutes.Round 1 to me . a quick trip to the streets of New York showed the umbrella to be working properly.
Quick trip to radiator springs for photo's with Lightning and Mater as there was no line.
Next up Muppet vision 3D .

Looking like a right Muppet;

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How to look good in 3-D glasses;

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On exiting we caught Phineas and Ferb again with hardly any wait.Hey Where's Perry ?
Now on to the writers stop for a recommended treat.
Grabbed a coffee and carrot cake cookie each... Nobody had warned us that they were as big as a hubcap .They were very nice though even if neither of us could finish ours.
Using all of our Jedi powers we rode star tours 2.0 twice in a row walking on each time
WE got two completely different rides each time and so as not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't ridden we got the Darth Vader first time round and Yoda the second.Very impressed with the new ride and rate it as much better than the original one.
Went back over to TSMM for the allotted fastpass time .. Donna won round two.
Next up Aerosmith.I rode this in the single rider line as Mrs F sensibly went shopping instead.
Onboard a super stretch limo ;

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Forgot to say that pre -Aerosmith we met with a few characters at the Art of Animation area.
First up was Ralph and Vanellope.
Next was the Big Cheese himself who spotted and liked my tattoo
Finally got pictures with Frozone and Mr Incredible.We chatted to the greeter for these two while in the queue and explained about the weight loss since the last time we met with them.
As we got to the characters it was announced to them (and the whole queue) about this which resulted in a lot of whooping and cheering from the line and a lot of high 5's and congratulations from the characters and greeters.
Right .. after that little edit back to the after lunch shennanigans.
We browsed the shops to let lunch settle and then headed for the Great Movie ride.We had the gangster . We found it to be highly amusing as she was a latino trying to do a Brooklyn accent.
Then on to the Backlot tour.As we had no volunteers they briefly demonstrated the water tank effects and then we headed to the trams.

Looking good in the sun ;

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After escaping catastrophe canyon we perused the gift shops before exiting the parks for the day.
Thursday 9th
Off to EPCOT for park opening.There doesn't seem to be the rope drops of old.We remember on previous trips waiting in the central hub held back by a rope waiting for the 9am let loose.Now they just open the turnstiles at 9 which doesn't seem as exciting.The old style paper ticket turn styles seemed to be moving quicker this morning.
First up was Spaceship Earth.Walked straight on and always enjoy this ride even the (rubbish) backward ending.
Next up over to The new Test Track (presented by Chevrolet dontcha know) Grabbed fastpasses for later and headed into the standby line.
We both really like the new and improved ride and had a blast making the vehicle.

My Manly Ride ;

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