Just home :( a quick highs and lows trip report

Arrived back this morning after a really pleasant flight home. We managed to have a spare seat next to us so we could spread out and managed to sleep most of the way home - a first for me! Landing was so gentle too, we barely noticed that we had touched down.

I'll start with the highs,

The beach club resort and our first time staying onsite. Total convert! I loved it. There were downsides to it too but I'll get to those. I loved being so close to everything, walking to and from Epcot was brilliant. Hotel was beautiful too.

MNSSHP, never been before but loved getting dressed up and seeing everyone else dressed up. Enjoyed hallowishes, but not as good as wishes

DDP, only ever had the odd meal onsite before but really enjoyed eating in lots of nice places. Favourites were...

Teppan edo, had such a good meal that we went back a second time with all the family.

Hoop de doo, wasn't sure what to expect but absolutely loved it.

Coral reef, got a tank side seat and the food was to die for.

Grand Floridian cafe for breakfast, brioche French toast, wow!

The food on the cruise was also amazing, Palo was Sy's favourite meal of the trip.

Castaway cay was worth the cruise alone, it was so beautiful but thank god it was just the 2 of us so we could go on the adults beach. The family beaches were jam packed whereas the adults beach was almost deserted.

The shows on the cruise were also amazing, loved believe!

AKL kidani village, the lovely girl on check in upgraded us to a partial savanna room, walked into the room to be greeted by animals just outside the window, it wasn't partial view to me, it was amazing. In fact I cried lol.

Alamo car hire, no hard sell at all. Free upgrade to a full size SUV dodge journey which was great to drive. Bit thirsty though.

Our villa on emerald island, beautiful loved being so close to everything on the 192 and Disney.

Giraffe feeding at Busch gardens, did it before but was a first for my parents and they were so happy, made it even better for us.

Dining with an imagineer. Booked this as a surprise for hubby as its what he would like to do, he studied architecture at uni and does engineering project management at the moment. The imagineer we got was from master planning - he's an architect! Could not have got a better imagineer! Not only that, he had another guy with him from the same department who was shadowing him as he had never done the lunch before. They spent most of the lunch talking to Sy as he had such an interest in their particular job.

Spending some time with my old friend James who is married and now lives and works in Orlando. He works in Disney grand floridian and universal as a server.

Story time with Belle, amazing! Won't ruin it for everyone, just go and do it!

And lastly, meeting some really lovely people from here it felt like old friends meeting up for a chat. I was sad when we had to leave

The in the middles

I thought the Disney cruise was just okay I was expecting to love it but it just didnt wow me. I was itching to get back to Orlando and it was only a 3 nighter lol. Sy loved it though and it was for his birthday so that's all that matters

Not getting a single towel animal in the beach club. I didn't know but Sy had even stopped the maid to ask her to leave one as I was disappointed, he even followed it up with a note on the mouse keeping envelope, but still nothing. We were in the furthest room possible from reception, that was bad enough, but our room didn't have a balcony (my only request) and when you did open the window all you could hear was the noisy air conditioning as we looked out over a flat roof. And then on our first night (when we were shattered) they started drilling below us which lasted about an hour on and off. Our room was a corner room though so was big and the room itself was very clean. However the hallways were not clean, in fact there was one part that had lots of white paint that had flaked off that was there the whole week we were there.

Going away with 8 people. 4 couples. It was difficult as everyone wanted to stay together which meant a lot of waiting around. Waiting for others to be ready to leave, waiting for toilet breaks, waiting while some are in shops, waiting for some to eat lunch when others weren't hungry. We went 6 of us in 2010 and that was fine, I think it was just 2 too many this time. I wouldn't do it again.

top of the world lounge at bay lake tower. It no where lived up to what I was expecting. There were bugs everywhere, the music wasn't very loud, you had to strain to hear it, I just didn't think it was as amazing as the DVC made it out to be. Still nice to go to though.

Lows,

Slipping over on the pavement in typhoon lagoon. There was water and sand on the slope and I went down hard, ripped my sarong and really hurt my knee, so much that it's still not healed properly now and I did it on one of the first days! What was so awful was that I was on my own and had things in my hands so took me a few mins to get up.... While everyone stepped over me, not one person asked if I was okay or offered to help no one even looked at me. It then meant that I couldn't swim or use the pool at the beach club, as my knee stung every time I went into the water.

Sy getting a cold the day we went to Busch gardens, he ruined the entire day. He didn't speak to anyone, he was moody, he refused to ride anything (he promised to ride a few coasters with me), in the end we left as he was so rotten to be around. He was better the next day thugh and apologised for being such a grumpy git.

Me getting violently sick at Halloween horror night. We hadn't been there long and went to finnegens for dinner and I felt really sick all of a sudden. Luckily Anne had a plastic bag which I had to use, I couldnt even move, I had the shakes so bad I couldnt hold the bag still. It was so so awful being sick in front of other people we had to leave then and I spent the rest of the night by the toilet throwing up...

Getting seasick on the last night of the cruise, we had to cut the night short so I could go lay down and take some travel sickness pills.

Having a few tummy problems for about 4 days in the middle of the trip. I seemed to suffer a lot with illness this trip lol

Spending an HOUR at DTD trying to upgrade our tickets to annual passes, blooming complete Orlando had given us 14 day tickets when we had paid for 21 day, Disney couldn't do anything and though it was sorted eventually, they haven't fully refunded us so that will mean yet ANOTHER phone call to them. They even had the cheek to tell us we should have checked the tickets before we used them - no where on them does it say how many days there are, you just assume you pay and expect that you will get what you pay for. We had them as part on the beach club onsite stay.

Going shopping and some of the party not wanting to be there and being really really nasty about it, even shouting at Anne! Wouldn't mind but we had 2 cars, both 7 seaters so some could stay and some could go back to the villa. Really ruined it for everyone else.

Really had a wonderful trip, and will of course be doing a full trippie. 3 and a half weeks felt like long enough, it didn't feel too long but I didn't cry when it was time to come home like I usually do. We thought we might take it a bit easier as we were there so long but we were still busy every day.

So how far away is May? I can't wait to go back, and lovely James said he can get us a good chunk of discount staying onsite so I have my heart set on the grand Floridian. I really loved it there. We upgraded our tickets to annual passes, for Disney and universal so next year we are hoping for 2 trips to the mouse roll on next year