Parks, Pins, Puke, Pennies...Not Enough Planning - April / May 2017: Summary & Highs / Not-So-Highs

[moosha]

Summary, Highs and Not-So-Highs

A bit of a spoiler for the rest of the report but I do prefer to do highs and lows at the beginning of the report rather than the end. I'll try and keep it brief (tricky for me as I'm sure you know ).

So what have we learned from our 2016 Florida holiday?

• Moving hotels a lot definitely makes the holiday feel it is passing slower and I am definitely convinced this is the way forward for us
  
• Packing cubes make doing all the moving around pretty much a piece of cake and didn't involve (too many) hours of packing and unpacking between stops. I am very much a convert
  
• My 11 year old is as excited and wide-eyed at Disney World as she was on her first visit when she was five
  
• Bubble wands are everywhere at Disney; we spent two weeks constantly walking through masses of bubbles. Not a bad thing as far as the girls and I are concerned, but Mat seems to have an aversion to bubbles and it (almost) brought out the grumpy old man in him...
  
• But not as much as matching / personalised Disney t-shirts which were even more ubiquitous than the bubbles and delight Freya but annoy Mat. This trend seems to have continued to grow at WDW in the six years since we started visiting regularly. We were also there during some cheerleading championships and lots of US school trips so uniform coloured t-shirts were everywhere. We felt like we were almost in the minority wearing individual tops throughout
  
• Pin trading and buying bags of mystery pins, plus collecting pressed pennies is pretty addictive and loads of fun

• The Boardwalk is as beautiful as it was on our first trip as a family in 2012...this part of Disney World really feels like 'home' to us

• Big Thunder Mountain in the dark, sat at the back, is the most fun ride in Walt Disney World. I cried with laughter the whole way round, as I always do
  
• My favourite ride at Universal Orlando has been SpiderMan since our first visit to Islands of Adventure in 2001. But I think Escape From Gringotts has just pipped it to the post this year for me, even though this wasn't my first year riding Gringotts. A slow and steady race to the top for a brilliant ride (in my opinion)

• My children do not yet know when to stop eating the rich food on offer in Orlando...hence the puke in the trippie title
  
• Spending an afternoon pottering around World Showcase is still one of our absolute favourite things to do at WDW

• The holiday was very productive in terms of expanding my collection of gorgeous Starbucks You Are Here mugs; my kitchen cupboard is now groaning at being stuffed full with all 16 I now own

Highs:

Early Morning Magic

This really was a treat for us and we all felt it was well worth the money. We paid $69 each for the three Disney 'adults' and $59 for Freya. Included is early admission to Magic Kingdom (7.45 am - 9 am) to ride Mine Train, Peter Pan and Winnie The Pooh, with buffet breakfast served at Pinocchio's Village Haus available between 8.30 and 10. We managed eight rides on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with no wait, one each on Peter Pan and one on Winnie The Pooh, (again with no wait). Being able to ride those three very popular rides with no hassle or wait was brilliant, and we decided to take the advice of easywdw.com's Josh and head to another area of the park at 9 am to ride something else with no wait (in our case Big Thunder Mountain and then Splash Mountain) before returning to Fantasyland around 9.30 for the breakfast, which was also really good.

Disney's official page on the event is here:

disneyworld.disney.go/di...morning-magic/

It's currently offered on Tuesday and Saturday mornings and needs pre-booking on the Disney website. easywdw.com also has a really good review of the event on the blog.





Celebrating Seren's 11th Birthday

Seren wore her birthday badge for a week and loved all the birthday wishes she received, plus she got a few little birthday treats because she was celebrating (five Disney birthday cards signed by characters plus a Mickey Mouse photo card delivered to the hotel room, a couple of cupcakes, a birthday cream puff, a birthday virgin cocktail served in a pineapple, and – possibly her favourite – birthday apple slices served with a lit candle . It was so lovely to be able to spend the day as a family in Magic Kingdom, and we really felt Seren deserved such a special day as she's worked so hard for the past couple of years to get into grammar school this September.





California Grill Brunch

We all love California Grill but had decided not to eat there this year while we weren't on the dining plan. I'd seen a review of the brunch on easywdw last October and thought it looked impressive but it was a crazy amount of money and at the time this was to be a 'budget' trip so I decided to forget all about it. When it popped up in Stephanie's (dixonsontour) food report earlier this year, again looking very tempting, I started to think about adding it in as a birthday surprise for Mat. His 40th last September had been a little underwhelming as he'd wanted a low key celebration with a nice family meal at a good restaurant up the road that we hadn't so far made it to. Unfortunately he was ill on the day so we cancelled with the plan to return at some point and had (cold) Domino's pizza instead. So far we are yet to rebook the restaurant so when the brunch popped up and I saw it was so up his street, I decided to book that as a surprise instead. He loves jazz, sushi, Bloody Marys and California Grill, so knowing all of that was on the table, I couldn't resist. I booked it in February when he was away in the States, and told the girls but we all kept it a secret from him until we checked in at the restaurant. He was really happy and we all thought the brunch was fab. CG is a beautiful restaurant, and it definitely felt like a special treat. The food and bottomless mimosas were delicious, with the highlight for me being the appetizers buffet. The sushi, fregola salad, smoked salmon with accompaniments, fruit and yogurt were all outstanding. Definitely recommended and I am planning on booking this again when we're on the dining plan next year.





Disney Springs

I heart Disney Springs. Pretty much everything about it appeals (apart from waiting for the buses home), although the designer / expensive shops are not personally attractive to us as we're not really big shoppers. We love the restaurants (Blaze Pizza was delicious), the drinks (I had an amazing cocktail at Art Smith's Homecoming, the Apple Pie a la Mode), browsing the marketplace shops, the atmosphere, and the girls and I love joining in with the cheesy dance party when it's at the Fountain Stage. I don't think I'd ever get bored of spending time at Disney Springs.



Apple Pie a la Mode (highly recommended) :



Meeting up with Friends

Not something we've ever done before as the situation has never arisen, but it was lovely to meet up with our friends Sandra, Ed and James (James is in Seren's class at school) on their last day and our first day in Orlando. We had a fun afternoon doing rides with them, including James getting Seren on Rip Saw Falls which was new to her and one none of us would have wanted to go on, so it was good for her to have a different ride buddy. We also enjoyed a meal with them at Margaritaville (although the food was dodgy).

Hard Rock Hotel

We had visited HRH while staying at Portofino Bay in 2015 and loved the feel of the place, so our choice of onsite Universal Express pass hotel was a no-brainer this year. We all loved everything about the hotel (with the exception of the tiny bathroom) and the staff were all so friendly and accommodating. Without a doubt, my favourite of the five hotels we stayed in during the trip. We will definitely be back.





Disney Mini Golf

An Orlando holiday for us isn't complete without multiple rounds of Disney mini golf and this year we managed three: both courses at Winter Summerland and the Gardens Course at Fantasia Gardens. We all love it, and always end up having a real laugh. Winter Summerland is the clear favourite, and this year we all enjoyed the winter course best, when in previous years it's been the summer course. I was victorious twice, with Seren beating me on her birthday (and I honestly didn't let her win just because it was her birthday.)



Lots of Good Disney Food

I was pretty down on Disney food after our 2014 trip which was one of the reasons we didn't stay onsite and take Dining Plan in 2015 or this year. But pretty much every table service meal we had at Disney was very good indeed and makes me excited to be returning to the deluxe dining plan in 2018. The Boathouse, Raglan Road (x2 - this has to be my first choice of Disney restaurant as it always impresses), House of Blues, Tusker House, Lava Lounge at Rainforest Cafe, and Crystal Palace all impressed.

Festival of Fantasy Parade (and Dining Package Preferred Viewing)

More thanks to Stephanie (dixonsontour) for highlighting this in her report. We had a partly delicious / partly awful meal at Tony's Town Square which we only booked for the preferred viewing for the parade. It was well worth it, I absolutely bloody love Festival of Fantasy. It always makes me cry, and this year I blubbed like a baby when, just like on her 8th birthday in 2014, Tiana called 'happy birthday' to Seren from her float . Amazing.



Impressive Pizza

Another food one. I've already mentioned the delicious pizza at Blaze (not surprised there's often a long line, it's so worth it. Go there!) Having a gluten free base was as easy as pie, and I got them to throw on loads of yummy veggies...ooh, it's making my mouth water just thinking about it. We also had a great pizza at Sal's Market Deli (again, try it!) It's at the piazza at Portofino Bay so only a picturesque 10 minute walk or little boat ride from CityWalk. The pizza and wine is very good, and sitting outside on the piazza is just lovely.



But the gold medal for impressive pizza this trip goes to Block's Pizza Deli at Miami Beach...seriously the best pizza I have ever eaten. It may not look like much (below), but oh my goodness . They use something called 'the mother yeast' which means the dough is easy on the tummy, rich in minerals, and has almost a sourdough taste. Plus all the toppings are fresh, seasonal and where possible, organic.



The International Tasting Tray, Coca-Cola Rooftop Bar, Disney Springs

$8. 16 drinks. Lots of fun. Highly recommended .



Beverly by any chance, Seren?



Not-so-Highs

Trattoria al Forno Bon Voyage Breakfast

Hmm...a tricky one this, as I'd imagine other people will have a much better experience than us so this isn't meant to put anyone off, but I want to be honest about our experience. We did this on our departure day so I think part of the problem was that we were Disney food / character meal-ed out. Having the opportunity to meet Flynn Rider (who I love) and Prince Eric was too good to miss, and it has to be said that the characters themselves were very good. But I struggled to get a photo of Rapunzel and Flynn together which is what I had hoped to be able to do, as they meet separately apart from dancing around the restaurant together for a song. They did spend ages together talking at one family's table which just made me feel disappointed that those guests had lucked out and got something 'special' . I wish the couples met together at every table as it would be great to watch the interaction between them. Our girls seemed to be a little more intimidated by the princes than they are by the princesses (and they're pretty shy around even them) so it wasn't exactly a relaxed meeting, but the guys did really well at doing their thing and were probably the highlight of the experience for me. The food was not good (aside from the pastries) in our experience and we all ate very little. It's the one and only time I feel I've struggled with being a vegetarian at a Disney restaurant as they didn't seem to particularly understand or accommodate our requests. My main problem was that the omelette I ordered included goat's cheese which I don't like. I had asked the server for 'a little' goat's cheese which she even reiterated when she brought out the plate, but there was loads of the stuff and it was all I could taste. Bleurgh. I had heard Trattoria al Forno was an impressive restaurant food-wise and it really disappointed for us.

The Weather

We had a real mixed bag of weather and about 90% of the time it was fine and didn't really affect us too much. I'm mentioning it specifically because it scuppered our plans a couple of times. We had a few very chilly evenings (there was a cool wind a lot of the time) that put paid to an evening wandering around the Boardwalk, plus two of those scary drives when the rain is so bad you can't see a hand in front of you. We also had to sack our morning walk around Miami Beach when we woke up to pouring rain which was disappointing as it was our last opportunity of the trip to explore the place.



Miami Beach

Which brings me to my final not-so-high. Our experience of South Beach / Miami Beach in general was very different to our expectations of Ocean Drive / the beach / the atmosphere and...how to say this without sounding too much of a snob...the clientele around the city / beach while we were there. We put it down to being there on a Saturday evening as all the local young people seem to drive in and basically cruise, twerk and film themselves all along Ocean Drive and the surrounding areas. They were everywhere, and tourists / families / couples seemed to be in the minority.



The high-end, exclusive place I was expecting had a very different feel in reality, and to us, it felt seedy and a little too gritty. I would really like to go back on a weekday evening to see it in a different light as the architecture of the city and beach were beautiful.



More details in day 1 of the report as there were other little things that contributed to us forming the less than favourable opinion of the place.

I'm not going to go into too much detail about anything else that wasn't the best either as I don't want to be a Debbie Downer when we had such a fantastic holiday overall, but I'll also briefly say:

A couple of dodgy Disney quick service meals confirmed my opinion of those in general. We're much happier with the table service meals.

BA didn't do much to improve how I feel about our airline of choice (especially the very old plane and malfunctioning in-flight entertainment system).

The Pirates League fell a little flat this time after being a big highlight of Seren's 8th birthday. As well as being very quiet in the PL this time and so suffering slightly from lack of atmosphere, the quality of the make-over (particularly Freya's hair which fell out of the style very quickly afterwards) was disappointing. I couldn't really recommend it based on this experience, but in 2014 it was one of our highlights.



And most disappointing moment of the holiday goes to spending 40+ minutes in the Forbidden Journey when the ride wasn't functioning during the extra morning hour for onsite guests which had a bit of a knock-on effect on our last day at Universal and is very difficult for a perfectionist / holiday drill-sergeant / type A kind of girl like me to deal with .

The niggles were very much outweighed by how much of a great time we were having 95% of the time and I am truly grateful that we are able to visit my absolute favourite place in the world as a family as regularly as I did with my parents and sister when I was a child .

[smithlane]

I love reading highs and lows!
Sounds like overall you had a great time, thank you for sharing.
Looking forward to reading the trippy 😃

[Guest]

Sounds like you had a fab time overall.

The pizza looks yummy, my favourite food.

How did you find the cheerleading groups? Bit concerned for our trip next year with taking first timers.

Thanks for the review of early morning magic. I am considering it for next year. Ummming and ahhing over the cost.

[Excited6910]

Loved reading this. You've gone into a lot of detail. Thank you. My 3 are pin trading mad and I'm expecting it to play a huuuuggggeee part of our holiday this year

[moosha]

Originally Posted by smithlane

I love reading highs and lows!
Sounds like overall you had a great time, thank you for sharing.
Looking forward to reading the trippy 😃

See more...

Thank you for reading and commenting . I love highs and lows too .

Originally Posted by Goofy71

Sounds like you had a fab time overall.

The pizza looks yummy, my favourite food.

How did you find the cheerleading groups? Bit concerned for our trip next year with taking first timers.

Thanks for the review of early morning magic. I am considering it for next year. Ummming and ahhing over the cost.

See more...

Yep we did have a fab time, thanks for reading and commenting.

There was definitely an abundance of good pizza on this trip .

Hmmm... the cheerleading groups didn't cause us any problems and were well behaved. They tended to be in the parks with their families / in small groups.

BUT there was an awful lot of them, so the parks / Disney Springs felt a lot more crowded than I was expecting it to at the end of our holiday. I thought our first week would be busy due to the end of Spring Break, and it would be much quieter after that. If I'd have known about the groups, I would have at least been prepared for it and my expectations of the crowds would be different. Forewarned is forearmed . I think if you know they're going to be there, you can at least adjust your expectations. Usual park touring rules (be there for rope drop, use FP+ etc) should mean they don't impact on you too much. There were also lots of large school parties on end of year / graduation trips too.

I think Early Morning Magic was well worth the money, but obviously that was just my opinion. The buffet breakfast was the thing that pushed me to book it in the end, as Disney breakfasts aren't cheap, so knowing you're getting an all-you-can-eat breakfast included makes it feel better value.

Mine Train is still a very popular ride, we never saw the line under 50 minutes during regular hours so getting to ride it so many times was brilliant. You can exit the loading area and cross straight back around to the FP entrance so you're back on within a minute or two. And the park felt so chilled out during the event.

Originally Posted by Excited6910

Loved reading this. You've gone into a lot of detail. Thank you. My 3 are pin trading mad and I'm expecting it to play a huuuuggggeee part of our holiday this year

See more...

Thank you for reading and commenting. I seem to struggle with pulling back on the detail but I really like reading detailed trippies so hope others do too .

Pin trading is loads of fun, and we really enjoyed buying the bags of mystery pins and finding out what surprises were inside . My girls can be quite shy with new people so it's great to see them approach CMs to trade and chat to them. The only downside of pin collecting and trading is how expensive they are . But worth it, the girls have come home with lots of special pins they love .

[scottishnellie]

Thanks so much for posting. Great detail!

Really looking forward to reading the rest of your trip report as you post it. X

[disneytrio]

Loved reading the highs and lows, mostly sounds like a fab time.
Can I ask what the breakfast offering was at extra hour in Pinocchio village haus, as we are looking at paying for the extra hour!

[WileyCoyote]

Ah, so many teasers for the main event - and it sounds like an eventful holiday.
The highs look amazing, the lows sound niggly - and I so get what you mean about the weather, you cant control it but its a real downer when it scuppers plans. As we discovered in march when it was just plain too cold !

Looking forward to the trippy
Welcome home x

[Goldia]

Ooh spoiler alert! Some great highs here, which has left me desperate to read the full trippie. Can't wait

[Joshie1]

Lovely to read through - looking forward to the full report.
We got our quiet DS involved in pin trading at my brother's suggestion and it really helped him with interacting with new people.
We didn't have a great experience on Forbidden Journey on our last trip as we queued for ages in the early morning entry queue only to be overtaken on the inside by general entry people as the park opened to everyone else before our queue had cleared.
Hoping for a better experience in a few weeks.