Disneymoon with the Besties - May/June 2017 - Day 17 - Magic Kingdom & California Grill

[tracey1302]

Pre-Trip Report

Day -1 - Sunday 21st May - Overnight stay at the Radisson, Manchester

Day 0 - Monday 22nd May - Travel Day and Arrival in NYC

Day 1 - Tuesday 23rd May - Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, Highline and Brooklyn Brewery

Day 2 - Wednesday 24th May - Central Park, Top of the Rock and Book of Mormon

Day 3 - Thursday 25th May - Grand Central and the Natural History Museum

Day 4 - Friday 26th May - NYC to MCO, arrival at Sapphire Falls and Cowfish

Day 5 - Saturday 27th May - Sapphire Falls, arrival of the besties and NBC Grill

Day 6 - Sunday 28th May - Universal Studios and Bahama Breeze

Day 7 - Monday 29th May - IOA, move to POR, House of Blues

Day 8 - Tuesday 30th May - MK, Narcoossee's and Happily Ever After

Day 9 - Wednesday 31st May - Epcot, Le Cellier, Illuminations and Magic Kingdom (take 2!)

Day 10 - Thursday 1st June - Typhoon Lagoon and the Boathouse

Day 11 - Friday 2nd June - Disney's Hollywood Studios and California Grill

Day 12 - Saturday 3rd June - POR and Jiko

Day 13 - Sunday 4th June - Narcoossee's brunch, Disney Springs, Pixar Live and Fantasmic

Day 14 - Monday 5th June - Photoshoot, Disney Springs and STK

Day 15 - Tuesday 6th June - Animal Kingdom (incl. Pandora!) , Tiffins and Rivers of Light

Day 16 - Wednesday 7th June - Disney Springs, AbracadaBar and Flying Fish

Day 17 - Thursday 8th June - Magic Kingdom and California Grill

Today was the dreaded last day. It broke my heart to even think it.

I don't know why I insist on torturing myself by going to MK on the last day, but I don't know what else to do. I have to 'say goodbye' to it, it's like a ritual, but in itself, it makes me very sad.

It made us even more frustrated that the very second we arrived at MK, it started to rain.

We had FP for the mountain range that day so we headed for Frontierland and Liberty Square, taking cover in the Christmas shop while it chucked it down.

We waited in here for about half an hour, until it let up. Our first FP was for Splash, and Splash was still down, so we headed for a ride that Neil has been threatening me with since 2014. The bloody teacups.

As payback for making me go on it, I made the cup spin really fast so Neil was massively dizzy when he came off. HA.

By this time, luckily, the rain had cleared and Splash was back up. Hurrah!

Given that we hadn't managed to get back on Splash on our last day in 2014, I felt that the rain gods were watching us on this day. I was really pleased to get back on this ride.

We came off Splash and the queue for BTMR was escalating as the rain had cleared. We quickly went on it, and loved it. I think this is better than SDMT in the sense that it's longer and a better ride, but not quite as smooth. Perhaps it needs replacing. It's getting on a bit now... but then again, it is a better ride than SDMT... perhaps they should have just rethemed BTMR to Snow White and done something else in New Fantasyland... ?

Quick last day selfie..

We discovered the day before that we had LOADS of snack credits left. And I was really eager to have one of these... a childhood favourite.

After BTMR, we headed over to Tomorrowland for our final mountain. Neil helped himself to some beautiful popcorn. He has only himself to blame for his ridiculous face.

So it was back on Space...

Before managing to catch a Photopass photographer for a final picture on honeymoon.

Saying goodbye to the MK is something I am never emotionally prepared for. I literally feel my heart aching as I walk back down Main Street, ready to leave the music, and the laughter, and that happiness behind. I looked over my shoulder for one last look at the Castle with my husband's arm around me, feeling the tears roll down my cheeks.

The only thing that comforted me was Neil who said, 'Don't worry, we will be back in two years.' Thank God. Because I swear leaving Disney gets harder and harder every time I do it.

Anyway, luckily, that night, we would see the Castle again. We were heading for the California Grill.

I ordered a glass of the Rosa Regale and Neil had a beer whilst we waited for our table.

We were escorted over to the far side of the restaurant, near the Magic Kingdom, which made me very happy. We sat down and saw that our table had been decorated with confetti and there was a card on there labelled 'Mr and Mrs'

The tears started falling shamelessly, and then I choked back a happy and emotional sob when I opened it and saw this.

My sister. My amazing sister, my best friend, who had only just come through her own wedding and honeymoon (see picture above obviously), with the crazy busy job... had taken the time out from her life to ring Disney, order and pay for...

Right on cue, the waitress delivered two glasses of Louis Roederer champagne.

Touched doesn't cover it. Neil and I were absolutely blown away and sent Katie a whatsapp message straight away with our pictures. We also had a really good view of the castle.

This kickstarted an absolutely fantastic last night.

I started with the BLT flatbread Olly had had on our previous visit. Wow.

And Neil had the sushi that Ben had ordered.

We both had fillet steak which was cooked to perfection.

Between entrees and dessert, we headed out to watch the fireworks. I basically sobbed my way through these again, with Neil's arms around me, taking it all in and wondering if I would ever have a holiday as amazing as our honeymoon. But then again, isn't it meant to be the most amazing holiday of your life?

Neil had the Valhrona Chocolate Cake...

And I had the Creme Brulee

Both were stunning!



We had had an incredible last day, and night in Walt Disney World. We had originally planned to go back to the Grand, but the weeks were catching up with us and we just, boringly, wanted to go back to POR to bed. We caught an Uber and were home very quickly...

The final day consisted of an early lunch at POR, the ME and a very very pleasing PE flight home with TC. This gave us a bit of a taste of the high life, what with the champagne on take off and the free drinks throughout the flight and great IFE.

We loved it! The food could have been better but the breakfast was really nice!

Final thoughts on our honeymoon

Our favourite day: Animal Kingdom... for Pandora and FOP alone, and maybe our first day at USF, getting the first boat out of Sapphire Falls
Our favourite show: Book of Mormon
Our favourite experience: Top of the Rock/Narcoossee's brunch
Best night's sleep: Sapphire Falls
Best hotel: Sapphire Falls
Wow factor: Arriving at Magic Kingdom/seeing Happily Ever After/champagne from Katie
Best meal: The Boathouse
Best QS credit: Blaze
Best ride: Flights of Passage

I apologise for the soppy comments ahead but I'm quite known for these at the end of trip reports.

I love my husband. We had an absolute blast. We laughed, we cried, we ate like kings, we drank like fishes, we had the time of our lives. I couldn't think of anyone who I would rather spend such an amazing three weeks with. I love this man more than words can say. He is my best friend, he was so amazingly supportive throughout my anxiety attacks in the first week, and given what we've been through together over the past year, he deserved this holiday more than me! But we had such a fantastic time.

Going on holiday with your best friends is really cool I wish Ben and Olly had been able to stay with us for longer, but given Olly is a teacher, they were confined to half term and we wanted to go in May. We had such a fab time with Ben and Olly while they were with us and we were so happy that they loved Universal and Disney as much as we did.

Ben, as a massive foodie, was seriously impressed by the quality of food at Disney and the rides at Universal and Olly was bowled over by the magic at Disney and the fun of Harry Potter.

We can't wait to go back. As always happens at the end of a Disney holiday, you start planning your return. It's literally the only thing that gets me through Post Florida Depression. Neil and I discussed 2019 A LOT when we were over in Florida. We earmarked restaurants we have to return to and restaurants we aren't so bothered about.

Our stand out meals were: California Grill, Narcoossee's (brunch over evening meal. Even though the evening meal was spectacular and still ranks up there as one of the best meals of the trip - brunch is such good value for money and it's so different as a meal experience), The Boathouse, Flying Fish and STK.

Great meals we would definitely like to have again: Jiko, Tiffins

Meals we're not AS fussed about next time: Le Cellier, Hollywood Brown Derby. Again, I feel like I'm being harsh here as the steak at Le Cellier is still gorgeous and far outranks the steaks I've ever had here in the UK, and the Derby is still beautiful... but the standard is SO HIGH with the Signatures we visited. It's not that they were bad, it's that the other restaurants were better.

Where to stay is going to be difficult, though hopefully CBR refurb will be done and we can go back home. We did like POR but as mentioned earlier, I was expecting to fall in love with it but I didn't. We found ourselves missing CBR. I think you just have an attachment to your home resort.

That being said, we did really like POFQ from what we saw of it... so that's an option if the CBR refurb takes it ridiculously out of price range, but I've been assured that it will remain a moderate. So, pray for us.

Walt Disney World is still the most magical place on Earth. And Universal, to be fair. I can never adequately express what this place means to me. My heart soars when I enter the Magic Kingdom, and it aches when I have to leave. I feel happiness soak through my body whenever I'm in Orlando, and as evidenced by my lack of anxiety there, it's the only place in the world where I feel I can truly relax.

This is how I feel about Disney...



Even more so now I'm a married woman with adult things to sort out, Disney is a place where I can go and feel all the stresses of the world leave my thoughts. It's where I can be happy, and sing, and dance and experience the start of a true happily ever after.

For those (hopefully) loving my trip reports, you will be pleased to know that we are on for September 2019. Me, Neil, my Mum, Step-Dad Martin, brother OB, and the Dufflers (Uncle Mark, Auntie Debs and favourite cousins Sam and Megan). We are planning 3 nights SF and 11 nights, hopefully at CBR.

See you then folks and thanks for listening! It's been the honeymoon of a lifetime!

[Angeshall]

An amazing trip report... I've been binge reading your wedding report as well! I really enjoy your writing style.

Hope the disney blues aren't too bad... get planning for 2019... x

[Unexpectedpenny]

A lovely but emotional last day. I hate the final goodbye. Magic Kingdom isn't even my favourite park but I always find it the most difficult one to say goodbye to!
Exciting that you're booked for 2019 though! Hopefully you can get CBR but we stayed at POFQ this year and it was brilliant.

Wonderful trip report, thank you for sharing it with us

[Floridaagogo]

Love love loved it 😀😀😀

[disney332]

Love reading this Tracey, great teport.

So pleased we bumped into one another.

Take care

Disney332

[firsttimemouse]

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing.

[tracey1302]

Originally Posted by Angeshall

An amazing trip report... I've been binge reading your wedding report as well! I really enjoy your writing style.

Hope the disney blues aren't too bad... get planning for 2019... x

See more...

Thanks!

I need to fix the photos on that asap! 😱

[collybird]

You had an amazing trip and I've enjoyed reading all about it, especially the food! Thank you for sharing.

[EJSakaAnna]

How amazing of your sister, what a lovely surprise on your last night! Glad you finished with another amazing meal, you've set the bar for restaurant recommendations, I'll need to refer back to this report when we eventually have a trip booked and need to decide on ADRs!

I've absolutely loved reading this report, thank you for sharing your trip with us .

I'm so glad you had the trip of your dreams. I know what you mean about wondering if you'll ever have as good a trip again. Our honeymoon was amazing and I often wonder if we'll ever match it. Can only try ! xx

[dannigizmo]

What a great report...loved reading it all, Thankyou.
What amazing memories u have forever. Onto the next one!