We'd better visit the Mouse... Sept/Oct 2015

[kaytronika]

Trip Index

We’re just under 40 days away and I’ve suddenly realised I haven’t written a pre-trip!

So here goes…

First I’d better introduce us, our full party will be 6 strong, but for the purposes of our trippy I’ll just cover the activities of my wife and me.

We are Gemma and myself, Mark, we’re in our thirties and live in in Liverpool… We will be visiting Walt Disney World for our first time this year. It’s actually our fourth trip but so far I’ve managed to evade the lure of the mouse




Our first trip was in 2010, it started with a bang when we all immediately hit the bar on arriving and got a little too drunk owing to the good spirits of finally being in Florida! We did Universal Studios and Seaworld/Busch that year, taking time to also visit Kennedy and Gatorland.



By 2012 we were itching to return and to be honest… We did the same holiday again more or less… We also got on TV when we jumped at the chance to get on the front row for the wrestling at the Impact Zone when TNA were taping there.



In 2013 we unexpectedly came in to a little money and decided a third trip was in order, this time we mixed things up a little and visited a few different off the beaten track zoos.



I’ve written reports for our first three trips elsewhere, but this time with a trip to Disney I thought it only fair to post a report here too since I’ve enjoyed reading all yours so much. It’s been over 400 days since we started planning, I needed something to keep me going!

Anyway, on to 2015…

We’re all booked in and staying at Rosen Inn Pointe Orlando for two weeks, flying Virgin from Manchester to MCO and Gemma and I have a standard SUV booked as a hire car.

After our previous three trips I promised Gemma we would finally visit Walt Disney World and now I’m probably as eager to see it as she is.

Gemma is the big Disney fan, her favourite films include Sleeping Beauty (mainly for Maleficent), Hercules and Tangled but she’ll happy watch them all.

I’m a fan of Monsters Inc and I like a bit of Lion King… I’m a huge fan of Maximus from Tangled! I’m a real fan of theme parks in general so I know I’ll find something to love at WDW.

We’re both massive fans of zoos and nature so we’re very excited to see Animal Kingdom, we’re also visiting SeaWorld (a favourite of Gemma) and Busch Gardens. We’ll also be planning to revisiting a couple of those small Floridian zoos which should make for different reading for trip report fans!

Gemma is planning to do Halloween Horror Nights with friends, while I’ll probably be enjoying a beverage or two at Pointe Orlando.

Our itinerary:
Tuesday 22/09/2015 arrive explore chill sleep
Wednesday 23/09/2015 seaworld DTD
Thursday 24/09/2015 animal kingdom HHN/The Pub
Friday 25/09/2015 epcot illuminations
Saturday 26/09/2015 disney exploring old town
Sunday 27/09/2015 brevard zoo/rest HHN
Monday 28/09/2015 magic kingdom electrical parade wishes fireworks
Tuesday 29/09/2015 lowry park zoo/rest
Wednesday 30/09/2015 busch gardens
Thursday 01/10/2015 rope drop magic kingdom B.O.G. HHN
Friday 02/10/2015 hollywood studios fantasmic
Saturday 03/10/2015 seaworld Spooktacular
Sunday 04/10/2015 animal kingdom HHN
Monday 05/10/2015 busch gardens
Tuesday 06/10/2015 Home and back on the internet to book again


A couple of points:
You’ll notice there’s not much scope for rest days. We tend to sort of just have slower days rather than specific rest days. We’re seasoned visitors to SeaWorld now so we’ll take it easier there. Also the zoos are small and can be done in about half a day. We’ll take our time though and relax while we enjoy them.
No shopping! Yes, I know some folk will be utterly perplexed at our inability to shop. We’ve tried it in the past and we just end up leaving with maybe a pair of jeans and a need for a beer. So we’re not planning any shopping days this year. If there’s time we may sneak a visit in to the shops, if not then that’s fine.

[kaytronika]

We've been marking down this little chalk board since well over four hundred days!

Some people pack clothes weeks in advance... I pack cameras!

[kaytronika]

A few more details for the detail happy...

I forgot to mention on the original post, we booked our tickets when our regular ticket seller was offering free tickets to the Orlando Eye, SeaLife Centre and Tussauds... So we have to find somewhere to add that in to the itinerary too! I'm thinking we may be able to slot those in in a late afternoon or perhaps during the evening. Those free tickets don't expire until next July so we could always use them as a really silly excuse to return

Food wise we're looking to eat mainly on International Drive with some exceptions for those longer Disney days where we'll possibly try some of the recommendations we've read about on Dibb. We're eager to try a Dole Whip float and we've not told Gemma's father about the Beverly drink so that could be entertaining.. teehehe. (the remainder of our party is Gemma's dad, brother, his girlfriend and another friend.. The latter three won't be Disneying)

I'm not a breakfast person, but the others are.. So I'll usually sip at a coffee while they eat in Dennys or arrange to meet them a little later on. I prefer to reserve my tummy space for lunch time!

We're going during the Epcot Food & Wine festival so I have no doubt that'll be explored too. I'd actually considered maybe getting a taxi to Disney for a day to explore that as I'm a fan of craft beers. That said, since International Drive has seen a huge upswing in the number of bars serving craft beers, it probably won't be necessary this time around.

It's obvious from the trip reports on Dibb that we won't be able to do everything we want to do in Disney on just the one trip. So we'll do what we can and try not to feel too rushed. We're weekly visitors to the local zoo and this has taught us that you can rush to see everything and miss a lot or you can take your time and see a few things. This is why we usually reserve two days for SeaWorld and Busch.

On Saturday the 26th I've put in some time for Disney exploring as we'd heard that you can make a day of exploring resort property. We have future trips in mind and wouldn't mind taking a look at a few resorts, probably Animal Kingdom Lodge comes to mind being that we're animal mad. We'll probably use the park transport to get about, leaving the car at the transport hub. I've mentioned the possibility of booking our fast passes for this day, but it's likely that we'll just go by mouse ear.

We always try to get a SeaWorld Spooktacular day in because although the park is busier, it does open until later in the evening... On our second visit we were lucky enough to watch a Shamu Rocks show, which is not normally running when we visit.

We're always welcoming of questions or comments!

Only 34 days to go...



Mark

[kaytronika]

and we're now under 30 days so the 5am starts have begun

Booked some fast passes for Animal Kingdom yesterday
and Epcot this morning.

Next 5am start is Magic Kingdom fastpasses.

[Loulabelle18]

All sounds great. Love the pic of you inside the aquarium! Looking to stay at Rosen Inn at Pointe when we go next so hoping you have plenty of photos of there xx

[kaytronika]

I've made a note to try and do a video tour of the Rosen a little, hoping to add vlogs to the trip report when I get round to it. If I pull my finger out they might be online before you go back

First gaff of the holiday: We overlied yesterday morning and missed the opening of Fast Passes for our final trip to Magic Kingdom... So we're going to have to run the gauntlet if we can't get a cancellation for 7DMT. I really only want to go on it to sing 'Hiiiii hooooooo!'

There is a possibility we could switch out Animal Kingdom and revisit Magic Kingdom for a third day or perhaps a half day actually, might look at that tonight.

[minnie1981]

Looking forward to reading your trip report especially the zoos and weather as we fly 22 september 2016. This will be our first trip at this time of year and fingers crossed it'll be hot when we go. Really like your disney count down chalk board

[kaytronika]

Originally Posted by minnie1981

Looking forward to reading your trip report especially the zoos and weather as we fly 22 september 2016. This will be our first trip at this time of year and fingers crossed it'll be hot when we go. Really like your disney count down chalk board

See more...

All of our September trips have been graced with fantastic weather. It rained once on our first visit and we saw just a few showers and downpours on the second two!

We've done the two zoos above before and deemed them worth visiting again, we've also covered Central Florida Zoo, Big Cat Rescue and Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

[kaytronika]

I made a slight change to the trip title, mainly to make it sound a bit more like I'm actually eager to go to Disney World (which is true!)

Anyway, I'm a typical bloke so I don't plan my outfits for the holiday... He lied...

Here's my Animal Kingdom shirt:

and I'm thinking this for Hollywood Studios maybe:

and of course we have new shoes for Animal Kingdom:

[kaytronika]

It was our single digit dance day today! So we did the first pre-trip vlog this evening to celebrate: