It's all about the mouse - Highlights and future plans

[Goldia]

Here are all the highlights of the It’s all about the mouse trip report.

If you haven't read the full report then the index is here

I am in danger of retelling the whole story if I’m not careful as this far away from the trip it doesn’t feel like there were any real lows looking back now I have major rose tinted spectacles about the whole holiday. Problems like running late to ADRs because of buses , bendy Eiffel Towers and thunderstorms affecting our plans seem a million years ago now and I’d love to have those worries today if it meant I was there in WDW right now . Even ‘Ohana with the speed eating contest we were entered into against our will is a small blip and part of me is wondering if I was just too harsh. I told you, rose-tinted!

If you’ve read made it this far with me then you’ve done brilliantly as so far I’ve written 52,117 words in this trip report (that doesn’t include the pre trip).

As far as the Statistics go we walked 383,334 steps (wow!) visited the parks 26 times, used 60 FP, made it to 95 attractions and met 58 characters.

Following are our highlights

Flights

The Aer Lingus flights were great, if you want to get cheaper flights in the summer holidays and are prepared to go indirect then this could be the perfect choice for you.

With the added bonus of pre clearance in Dublin, free seat selection, the 2-4-2 seat layout then it is a really good option. We chose to sit in 2 rows of 2, that way at least Dave didn’t get someone reclining their seat before take off and I didn’t get an annoying child kicking the back of my seat, or if I did then it was my child and I could let rip

Royal Room at POR

This was a real treat and I loved this resort and I loved this room.

So. Very. Cute.

Definitely worth tagging on to the end of the trip. It was also brilliant that this was a surprise reveal to the kids and they promise me they had no clue we were going there.

OKW

This was a fab resort, for some reason it didn’t grab me as much as POR though. The room was bigger, we had a balcony, we had a kitchenette (I can’t call it a kitchen). But, the bathroom only had 1 sink and was inside the bathroom so with 4 of us to get ready it did mean we had to be pretty fast in there. The kids preferred the pool here though to the POR main pool.

2 Resorts means 2 lots of magic bands

Ok so this is going to sound a bit lame, but I really liked having the 2nd set of magic bands and we now all have matching orange magic bands which I think is pretty cool.

EMH and making it to 2 EMH on 1 day

This felt such a cool thing to do. Day 2 was supposed to be an Epcot day as they had EMH from 8am. Then when Toy Story Land was opened up we were in the luxurious position of having HS EMH every day from 7am. So, I decided that we would get a fix of RnR and ToT for an hour and then head over to Epcot.

Being at HS from 7am was fab as we really did have the park to ourselves, plus I suppose all the other people were in TSL and we were not.

I think this strategy also worked in our favour when we did EMH at AK as all the people were heading towards Pandora apart from us. We really enjoyed EMHs this year.

Lazing on the Nomad Lounge Terrace

We all enjoyed AK a lot this year, in fact both Dave and Kate said it was their favourite park this holiday (previously it had been Epcot and MK). We enjoyed an early dinner at Tuskers which was fab as usual, watched the Lion King show which I think is my favourite show and then while we were waiting for the fullness in our bellies to subside and for darkness to descend so that we could see Pandora at night we went to the Nomad Lounge. It was an oasis of calm in a hectic park and we enjoyed sitting on the sofa’s.

I booked some FP for the kids and they went off and rode Everest, which meant we could squeeze in 2 cocktails each. It was a lovely hour.

4 Parks 1 Day

I’m so glad we did this challenge. It was tiring but absolutely worth it and so much fun. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. We had a ball. Here we are setting out in the dark.

Riding It’s a small world with no one else in the boat

This was one of those things that I just adored. HEA was about to start in MK so I guess everyone else was watching that and there was no one else to get on the boat with us so we sailed around small world all by ourselves. I was ridiculously happy at being in the boat on our own.

Characters and filling up the autograph book

Filling up that autograph book was an awesome feeling.

It was a great day as we were about to do the reveal of the surprise resort. World Showcase was it’s usual boiling hot steam bowl in the middle of day, but me and Kate raced around and Princess Jasmine in Morocco was the very last signature.

Max’s buffet plates

These speak for themselves, hilarious here’s hoping he doesn’t change.

The Kitchen Sink

The same boy that brought us those buffet plates was the last one standing at out attempt to eat the kitchen sink. This was fun to try out and Max said it was his favourite meal of the trip, Kate also loved it but put Beaches and Cream second place to the Cali Grill Brunch.

California Grill Brunch

This was our day of rest following the exertions of the 4 parks day and given how much we had walked on the day before I think we deserved a rest. It was a fabulous meal we would definitely return here. Both Kate and Dave said this was their favourite meal of the trip.

New stuff

So much was new to us as we hadn’t been to WDW since 2016. Pandora had opened and both Flight of Passage and the Na’vi River Journey were great, of course FOP is a fantastic ride we all loved it (but it’s greatness just highlighted even more for me that Soarin and the bendy tower needs fixing).

Plus the opening of Toy Story Land and the 2 new rides there were fab.

Being picked in the Laugh Floor show

This was hilarious and I really couldn’t stop laughing I don’t know how he managed to read my mind!

Cocktails

There were loads that were delicious, most of the QS ones were drinkable. Table service 'free' cocktails were better.

The best of course were the ones that were paid for. Dragon’s Breath and Himalayan Ghost, near Everest in AK.

Nomad Lounge.

HBD Lounge Flights.

The slushies from France.

Around the pool both our favourites were the Smoked Turkey and Whiskey Breeze, they were just so easy to drink, yummy!

Dave enjoyed the Bourbon one… which one? The Old Fashioned at Jocks Hangar Bar. Plus the Negroni.

Finally, Dave doing his impression of one of the servers at 'Ohana!

There were so many awesome things that happened and also stupid silly things that I loved and it has been wonderful to be able to share it all with everyone.

Future Plans

As I’m sure most of you have spotted we are back again next summer. Wahoo

The possibility of a 2019 trip started to be talked about back in January 2018 when I managed to convince my mum that it might be an idea for her and dad to come with us, get her on side first . Dad wasn’t the most excited about Orlando as a holiday destination.

Eventually after several conversations back and forth, he sort of agreed , or should I say succumbed. We booked up 2 weeks at the beginning of August 2019 at POFQ, we also have the upgraded dining plan.

It was lovely to go on holiday last year already knowing the next one was booked. There isn’t that feeling in the 2nd half of the holiday that this is the last time we will be at this park and then this is the last time we will see fireworks and so on, yes the end of the holiday was sad still, but we knew it was only the last time this year and that made a big difference.

Also, all holiday we had the added bonus of saying “Ooh, Grandad will really love that” or “I hope they enjoy 7DMT and don’t hate the coasters!”. Max is really hoping that with Grandad’s help we could finish the kitchen sink. There are loads of fun things that we are all looking forward to.

On that last day when we got the boat from POR to DS to go to House of Blues we got a glimpse of POFQ resort and it looked beautiful, the kids saw the pool and are already excited about the slide.

I’ve already started a pre-trip for this summer The Bare Necessities Summer 2019 can be found here if you want to pop along and see what our next adventure is going to look like.

In the meantime I have another Disney trip report to write up as Kate and me had a little jaunt to DLP in February and I really should get started on writing all about our fun in Paris . I did a pre trip for the Kate and Me at DLP report and the index is here if you're not well and truly fed up of me.

And I think that is now it. Thanks again for reading everyone.

See ya real soon

[Hel22]

Thanks Abby for the great recap of your trip. It has made me smile all over again. Am looking forward to your DLP write up and can't wait to read of your multi generational trip in August, I think it will be fantastic. Thx so much for sharing you families time with us all, enjoy making the next memories Hx

[DisneyDaffodil]

Looking forward to reading your future trip reports as I really enjoyed this one 😀 . Plus, we will be following you in our plans with Disney Land Paris planned for 2020 and WDW in 2021/22 for our family (which means we need to get our current trip report finished soon)

Enjoyed reading your highs and lows (although I didn’t spot any lows) particularly all your lovely cocktail photos 😂

[MrsSilverStar]

What a lovely round up - sounds like a truly wonderful holiday! I find myself getting a little stressed sometimes with all my reading around our upcoming trip, so it’s great to read such a positive summary from someone who’s been several times and still finds the magic! Thanks for all your hard work in writing this up, have loved reading along.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Hel22

Thanks Abby for the great recap of your trip. It has made me smile all over again. Am looking forward to your DLP write up and can't wait to read of your multi generational trip in August, I think it will be fantastic. Thx so much for sharing you families time with us all, enjoy making the next memories Hx

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It was fun for me to indulge in it all for the last time and look through all the photos again. I'll start the DLP report soon, it won't take long to write as it was only 5 days.

I'm thinking this summer will be fantastic too. Thanks so much for reading. It's lovely to talk about it all with other people who love WDW.

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

Looking forward to reading your future trip reports as I really enjoyed this one 😀 . Plus, we will be following you in our plans with Disney Land Paris planned for 2020 and WDW in 2021/22 for our family (which means we need to get our current trip report finished soon)

Enjoyed reading your highs and lows (although I didn’t spot any lows) particularly all your lovely cocktail photos 😂

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You're right there weren't any lows were there? Perhaps if I'd written this last August when it was all fresh in my mind then I'd have been able to whine about the things that wound me up at the time. There certainly were niggles and things that could have been better. But, funnily enough they seem incredibly insignificant now.

I saw a Dis Unplugged video today that announced the buses would be going direct from the resorts to the water parks. You would think I'd be over the moon at that, as this was a pain in the butt at the time, but instead I thought oh that's a shame we won't be able to stop off in Disney Springs for a Starbucks breakfast or a lovely D-Luxe burger or Blaze pizza lunch so while the buses pain of going via DS could easily have been a low, now that they aren't going there I'm kind of disappointed!

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

What a lovely round up - sounds like a truly wonderful holiday! I find myself getting a little stressed sometimes with all my reading around our upcoming trip, so it’s great to read such a positive summary from someone who’s been several times and still finds the magic! Thanks for all your hard work in writing this up, have loved reading along.

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I'm still totally in love with it all. I hope that will never change (while I can afford to keep going there that is).

I'm sure your trip will be magical, there's so much to see and do. Your eyes will be popping out of your head. It will be a marvelous trip I'm sure of it.

[Cinderella]

Thank you for sharing your trip👍

[WileyCoyote]

It really was a fabulous trip.
So many amazing highs and lows that were niggly at the time for sure but all part of the great tale !

[walt4it]

What a great way to wrap up the whole trip

Have enjoyed reading your whole report Abby and look forward to your future plans and trips

So many fantastic photos throughout your report - thanks for taking so much time and effort to share and to relive each and every day with us all.

Dibb meet for this summer I think

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Thank you for sharing your trip👍

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You are welcome, I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

It really was a fabulous trip.
So many amazing highs and lows that were niggly at the time for sure but all part of the great tale !

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It was fabulous. I just couldn't bring myself to dwell on the lows in this post. I suppose it's a blinkered view, the little spats that we had were generally a result of me wanting to get everyone moving more quickly or worrying about being late for ADRs or FP. So, they certainly weren't worth bringing up again.

Originally Posted by walt4it

What a great way to wrap up the whole trip

Have enjoyed reading your whole report Abby and look forward to your future plans and trips

So many fantastic photos throughout your report - thanks for taking so much time and effort to share and to relive each and every day with us all.

Dibb meet for this summer I think

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It was such a fun trip to write up. We may have looked like we were rushing around from ride to ride, but it really didn't feel so hectic, well not all the time. There were some great moments that were tiny things really and those are what I will cherish. Like the its a small world VIP boat ride. I loved that and it's a wonderful memory that I won't forget.

I'm glad to have shared it all, it's lovely that people have enjoyed reading it and came along on the adventure with me these last few months.

I'm going to hold you to that dibb meet.

[JackyH]

Fabulous trip report. Looking forward to the next one and also DLP as I’m off there in September.