Toarin' - August 2015. Day 7 - US & IOA, Move to SSR, Magic Kingdom

[Scruffette]

Day 7 – US and IOA, move to Saratoga Springs, Magic Kingdom

Lunch at Mythos, Dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express

Today was our last day at Universal, and we were moving to Disney this afternoon.

We were up nice and early to catch a third morning in a row of early entry at Diagon Alley. Rather than try and sort our luggage this early, we planned on coming back after early entry, but before check out at 11am.



We walked over to Universal and joined one of the queues at the turnstiles. The previous two mornings, a couple of lines had formed later outside the central gate (see photo below)



To beat the crowds, Ollie went over to one of the people and asked if we could start a line there. He said yes and we were first in line! Result.

We got chatting to the guy there about lots of the different rides. He seemed to think they had changed the water levels in the Jurassic Park ride to make it wetter. I knew it!

As soon as the Family of the Day had done their opening bit, we were through the turnstiles and power walking to Harry Potter. We managed to overtake the family of the day in the process (kids have short legs)!

Diagon Alley was empty! We were in and out super quickly on our 4th ride on Gringotts.















We wanted to get the Hogwarts Express to IOA, but it wasn’t running. I wondered whether this was linked to some of the compartments being out of action yesterday.

Instead, we changed the plan to do a few rides in Universal first.
We took a ride on the Mummy again, with no line at this time.

Ollie then wanted to ride RPR, so I went on Minion Mayhem which had very little wait, which is rare for this ride. I seemed get thrown around a lot this time.





Whilst waiting for Ollie I bought a Minion Christmas decoration from the gift shop for my Brother’s girlfriend for Christmas.



We exited US and walked back to RPR. We almost took a boat, but had just missed one and didn’t want to wait for another.







Once in our room, we sorted out our cases, which wasn’t too bad as we hadn’t really unpacked anyway. Luggage was left with Bell services and we walked (again) to IOA.











Ollie rode Hulk first, while I sat in the sun.





I got a few snaps of the King Kong building work.



We also stopped to watch a bit of this fellow.



We had a 12.15pm reservation at Mythos. We checked in and were seated straight away.



I really liked the look of the restaurant on the inside.

[Scruffette]

Our server was a little slow throughout the meal, but we weren’t in a big rush.

We both went for a drink of the month cocktail ($6). They were vodka based with mint and watermelon which was a welcomed refreshment having got out of the midday sun. I remember it being quite strong for lunchtime!



We had to wait a while for the bread, but I really liked the Universal butter!



We split two appetisers

Crispy Spanakopita ($7.99) A house made blend of spinach and feta cheese wrapped in crispy shells served with a cucumber & red onion salad, olive tapenade, and a Tzatziki sauce



and a Vegetable flatbread ($7.99)



The flatbread was the real winner here. It looks like cheese sauce in the photo, but is actually a pepper sauce.

For mains we both had the Cranberry blue cheese crusted pork ($14.99) Seared pork loin, Yukon potato puree, braised cabbage, apple-brandy demi glace, apple salad



I really enjoyed this. It felt a bit wintery for August, but the blue cheese flavour was just right.

The prices in Mythos were very reasonable, and not much more expensive than a lot of the counter service options. Overall I was pretty impressed.

We declined pudding, partly from being full and partly because I had my heart set on a butterbeer for dessert.

After a large midday meal, Ollie was very sensible and rode Forbidden Journey. Almost being thrown upside down is exactly what I want after eating.

He went in the single rider line, while I declined and watched the Hogwarts choir. I thought he had been gone a long time when he found me. Apparently he couldn’t find me after riding, so decided the sensible thing to do was ride Flight of the Hippogriff!

Of course, I made him ride again! I enjoyed getting a glimpse of Hagrid’s hut. We were on very quickly with the FOLPs, but I felt sorry for those waiting a long time in an exposed line.



This kiddie coaster was definitely my level of coaster! I enjoyed this but found two adults in a car to be quite cramped.

We caught the Hogwarts Express (again) back to US. We rode this several times during the 3 days and I enjoyed it every time.
We wanted to be heading over to Disney at a sensible time, so took one final ride on Revenge of the Mummy.

I hadn’t had a butterbeer in over 24 hours, so I needed to rectify this urgently before we left. We bought a frozen butterbeer in Diagon Alley.



This was cheaper than at IOA. Only just, but I thought this was a bit odd. I checked later whether they were in different counties with different tax (as Disney World covers two counties) but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Weird.

Anyway, we took the butterbeer with as and wandered out of the park, stopping to buy a magnet for our fridge at home.



I loved the minions under the Universal arch.





After our many walks to and from the parks, we caught the boat back this time.

We picked up our luggage and I took a few snaps around the lobby of this beautiful hotel. We also had several cups each of the fruity drink they have available in the lobby in the afternoon.









We really enjoyed our stay here and love the express passes that come with it. A two night stay gave us plenty of time to do everything we wanted in the parks, without feeling rushed like we did on our one night stay two years ago.

We picked up a taxi outside the hotel to take us to Saratoga Springs. It was around $40, about the same price as two years ago.
There wasn’t much of a line to check in.

Now, I have very high expectations when I’m at Disney World. Some of these expectations may be overly high, but after several trips I am used to having amazing experiences.

This check in experience just wasn’t quite was I was expecting. There was nothing wrong with it as such, it was just lacking that Disney touch which you expect (and pay for).

We were allocated a room in the Grandstand on the top floor (which we had requested). However, it was the further grandstand building away for reception. This was fine, but there was no explanation of how to get there or anything.

She handed us our magic bands, and that was about it. After a blank look from me, she said “You’ve used magic bands before”, more as a statement than as a question. I said no, as we hadn’t, even though I knew how everything worked. She gave a brief explanation, although we both struggled to understand her as her English was not great.

She didn’t really properly end the check-in process. We weren’t wished a nice stay or anything at the end. Normally, they make a point of wishing you a ‘magical stay’. As I said, this isn’t the biggest deal in the world, but I was just feeling underwhelmed at this point.

We decided we’d walk to our room with our luggage (and there was no explanation of anyone who would help with luggage). This was a bit of a mistake. It was a long walk and very hot. Last time we stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter, where nothing is too far away, so this was a real shock for us. I also didn’t like having to walk through the car park to get to our building.







By the time we got to the room, we were hot, tired and I was a bit grumpy. I think Ollie could see I was a bit deflated, so he offered to go and get our refillable mugs.



I liked the colour of the mugs this trip.

They were supposed to be valid for the length of the trip, but the screens showed they were valid for a month when we dispensed our drinks.

[Scruffette]

While he was gone I started to have a look through the room. I really started to like the layout of the room. The sofa meant we had so much extra space in the room compared with the normal two bed layout.



















The little kitchenette was a nice touch, having a fridge was much appreciated after the all the fridges being removed from rooms on our last trip. The toaster came in useful for pop tarts.



The room also had a balcony.



Although there wasn’t exactly a view…













However, we barely made it out on the balcony as we were on the go a lot of the time.

I also did a bit of unpacking whilst waiting for Ollie. Up until this point we hadn’t bothered but we were staying here 9 nights so it was nice to land a bit. He was gone a long time, but I didn’t really question it.
He very carefully attached our stickers to our Magic Bands.



Ollie had the house and balloons from UP and I had polka dots like Minnie Mouse. Later in the week I removed the outer part from my band as it was quite big on me and felt quite awkward when it was wrapped around. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with smaller wrists.

We loved the magic bands stickers. These were ordered from Magic Your Band, who advertise on here. The service was very speedy, they included two lots of each design and a free monorail sticker as well. I would definitely order from them again.

Ollie got lots of compliments on his band including one fastpass attendant who wouldn’t let him onto Big Thunder without first telling her where he got it! Mine looked like one you could buy, but was lots cheaper.

The plan was to head to MK where we had FP+s booked, but our first priority was food! Being so close to DTD (which it was still at the time) we planned to eat at Wolfgang Puck Express.

We walked over to the boat dock, which was still quite a way, but couldn’t seem to find any indication of how often the boats ran. Not wanting to wait for ages, we carried on walking. Bearing in mind this was August, where every walk seems three times as long in the heat. We made it to the Congress Park area and noticed a bus heading to Downtown Disney. This was only a short journey, but lovely to be on an air conditioned bus for a bit!

Our first stop was World of Disney to pick up our $200 gift card. The desk to pick it up was in the jewellery section I think. We needed ID in order to pick it up.

I do wonder how many people make it out of World of Disney with their giftcard intact!

It seem to take the cast member a long time to find our gift card.
He also said he liked Ollie’s t-shirt, now we were at Disney the Mickey-wear was out in full force. Today’s choice had the various parts of Mickey Mouse laid out like an airfix kit.

I had a quick browse (well as quick as possible in World of Disney), but couldn’t be too long as our minds turned to food.

Of course, we stopped in Ghiradelli for a free chocolate sample! These have been reduced to the smaller chocolates which haven’t got the best caramel to chocolate ratio.

There is always a line in Wolfgang Puck which today extended just outside the door, but moves quickly and gives you a chance to decide.

Our food was pretty speedy coming out.



I had the Chicken Alfredo ($16)



It’s quite rare for me to order pasta when I’m out, but I’d seen this in lots of trip reports and liked the look of it. The sauce was very tasty.
Ollie had the Chicken meatball pizza ($13.50).



It came out a little bit on the well done side but was still edible and he left the crusts in favour of finishing his pudding anyway.
For dessert I had the Crème Brulee ($6)



Ollie had the Cheesecake ($6)



Our Fastpasses for MK looked like this:



I screenshotted them each day just in case the app had a funny moment.

We walked to Congress Park and caught a bus to Magic Kingdom.
I love that moment entering Magic Kingdom for the first time.


There’s my castle

It was pretty busy tonight, but we had FPs booked so it wasn’t an issue.

This is where the FP+ system is really good. We never would have been able to get on some of these rides without a FP without having to wait for ages later in the day.

Anyway, our first stop was Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We rode towards the end of our time slot. In the FP queue, we only had to wait a few minutes. We were seated in the front row – result!

I really enjoyed this ride. I know it gets a lot of stick because it’s quite short and clearly a kiddie coaster, but it’s definitely my level of coaster! It was great to ride in the front row the first time to really see all the detail, even though you can’t feel the swinging as much. You got a good view of the park lit up at night as well. Ollie also really liked the seven dwarfs cottage at the end of the ride whilst you’re waiting in the brake section for the station to clear.

This became one of my favourite rides this trip, and I was glad we had been fortunate to get several FPs for this ride (even if I didn’t appreciate it at 5am when I booked them!)

The ride photos and video go straight onto the magic bands, no need to scan them. The only time this didn’t work properly was our first ride on Test Track later in the trip.

We headed to Peter Pan’s Flight next, which we hadn’t been able to ride last trip as the lines were insanely long. Even without FPs there was hardly any wait. I enjoy this ride, and hope it gets a bit of a refurb like the Disneyland version.

We had a little time before Wishes, so we popped into Phillarmagic. However, we ended up waiting a while for a show to start as they were clearly hoping to fill up the theatre a bit more.

The show was as fun as ever, and afterwards we made our way round to the front of the castle. The crowds were pretty busy tonight, and I noticed a lot more CMs out and about directing the crowds.
Wishes was as incredible as ever. We watched this probably 5 times over this trip. To me, this really sums up Disney. I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of this show.

Although I was tired after the fireworks, we had a Space Mountain FP and it would be rude not to use it!

Space was as fun as ever, although it seemed a little less dark than before. Because the ride photo is taken right at the beginning, it’s easy to pull a silly pose for the camera, which has become a bit of a tradition on this ride.

We left the park after this and caught a bus back to Saratoga Springs. At least coming home, the grandstand is the first stop.

We went into the room, where some balloons and a green gift bag was waiting. Inside the bag was an autograph book and a mickey mug/pen pot – the jury’s out on that one. I think it’s a pen pot, Ollie thinks it’s a mug. Here’s a picture of it anyway!



I was a bit confused by this at first. Ollie explained that when he was getting our refillable mugs earlier, a manager was talking to guests and happened to ask Ollie about our stay. He explained we had just checked in and hadn’t had the most Disney-like experience. Ollie asked if someone could call the room and leave a message wishing us a ‘magical day’ or something similar. Instead, we got this.

Now this was a really Disney touch, like I had expected when we checked in.

The only odd thing was that the balloons included a ‘happy anniversary’ and a ‘just marred’ balloon. An odd choice, considering neither applied to us!

We eventually headed to bed, setting our alarms for an early start. Of course, when you’ve been in MK in the evening, it’s sensible to set your alarm to be at MK for early opening at 8am!

Day 8 - Magic Kingdom

[Cinderella]

A busy day :-)

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by Cinderella

A busy day :-)

See more...

They all seem to turn out that way! Thanks for reading

[spencem]

Sounds like a great day, except your check in experience. Yours is the second report I've read lately where the check in was decidedly un-Disney. Like you say we all pay enough to expect them to at least be polite, I expect that from a £39 Ibis!

[Sparksy72]

We love Royal Pacific too, just so relaxing. How lovely to have the nice surprise in your room - we had a less than 'Disney' experience at check-in but ended up with a fantastic room. I am looking forward to seeing your next day - cheers.

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by spencem

Sounds like a great day, except your check in experience. Yours is the second report I've read lately where the check in was decidedly un-Disney. Like you say we all pay enough to expect them to at least be polite, I expect that from a £39 Ibis!

See more...

Thanks for reading Fortunately we had lots of other lovely Disney experiences

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

We love Royal Pacific too, just so relaxing. How lovely to have the nice surprise in your room - we had a less than 'Disney' experience at check-in but ended up with a fantastic room. I am looking forward to seeing your next day - cheers.

See more...

Thanks for reading Next day will be up soon!

[Excitedx4]

Brilliant trip report

[ely3857]

Definitely a mug! I almost bought the Mickey & Minnie version in 2014. Wish I had now, seeing the photo reminded me how much I liked them so I'm not gonna be talked out of it next time!