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Old 25 Nov 19, 08:03 PM  
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MoragSybil
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Reflections on a November trip

We're just back from a mid November (pre Thanksgving) trip to Disney and assorted non-theme park days; here are reflections whilst it is all fresh.

We had last been in Orlando 12 years ago, and this was our first visit as 'empty nesters'. I was slightly unsure as it had been so good before, and it seemed so family focused - but as things turned out it was a great holiday.

The holiday dates had been long planned, but the trip was planned last minute (we decided to avoid mainland Europe due to Brexit uncertainty very late in the process ). Flight and accommodation were a late deal flying Glasgow to Orlando with Virgin, self catering accommodation at Hapimag, and then return flights Orlando -> Amsterdam with Delta, and Amsterdam -> Glasgow with KLM. The flight with Virgin was a Saturday morning, and was full of happy holidaymakers, there were mouse ears and polka dots visible all over Glasgow airport ! - we took a couple of meal deals on with us, as had read food might need supplementing, and was glad we did. The meal was ok, but the afternoon tea type snack could have been better. The Delta flight was good, except protracted turbulence up the east coast of the US, and that was not in Delta's control. By the time we got to the short KLM flight we were too tired to notice/care anymore !

The accommodation at Hapimag was very suitable for us. It was basically a three bedroom terraced house on a gated community - we had booked one bedroom, so they locked two of the bedrooms and what looked like family bathroom. That left us with master bedroom and ensuite, and standard american openplan downstairs cooking/eating/ sitting areas, downstairs loo and large laundry 'cupboard' with washer and dryer. It was very satisfactory.

We hired a car - a Kia ? maybe ? I don't pay much attention to these things - from Budget. It was fine, and there was no hastle with it. It was small by american standards, I remember thinking in UK it would have been family car sized, but the boot was really small. We had one large, one medium, and two standard handbagage and we had to put one of the handbagage items on the back seat.

The weather was ranging low to high 20s, we had 2 or 3 overcast days, rest were beautiful blue. We did not see rain, though one morning there were some puddles about. In the evenings though it was cool - I ended up wearing a cardigan I had brought for return trip.

We bought a 6 day Disney ticket to be used over 9, and went to Kennedy Space Centre (husband has an astronomy degree, and is deeply interested in such stuff).

The first morning we headed for Kennedy - as we were driving up we saw something in the sky, which we decided was a UFO - it turned out it had been a rocket launch ! - so we saw it from about 10 miles. Husband had been watching the relevant sites for launches but had given up, and just picked a day ! (we went to a launch years previously). Also this was Veterans Day - I've obviously no idea how busy it is normally at this time of year - but I would say it was busy, but not so our trip was adversely affected. It was also really interesting, and thought provoking as to how Americans honour their veterans. We enjoyed the space shuttle exhibits which were new since our last visit.

We visited Disney like a pair of big kids ! One day each at Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Disney Studios (a long day), and three at Magic Kingdom.

The day at Animal Kingdom was really hot, and really busy (despite being predicted as a quiet day ?) - We enjoyed the safari cruse, husband did Everest (while I quietly ate ice cream somewhere - I don't do these things !), and at the end of the day we decided to queue for FOP (the app was saying 60 minutes, we ended up queuing 90 minutes) - it was really good. Why didn't Disney build it with bigger capacity ? Also noted all the fluorescent features in the vicinity as we left after dark, and thinking how much better this must be seen like this rather than in bright sunlight. Overheard someone later in the week saying they'd queued 3 1/2 hours for FOP !

The Food and Wine Festival was on at Epcot, a fair number of visitors with t shirts on referring to this. Loved the 'bouncing' fountains at Epcot again. Went 'Soarin' again, this had previously been my favourite ride, and had even done it twice. Husband thought the visuals had changed, we didn't remember some of the features, and I think he is right. Still great fun. Love it. We walked half way around the world. - I do think that this is likely to be of more interest to Americans, who are less likely to travel outside their own country. We went in the direction to avoid Britain (!) - and I ended up buying a fan in the chinese section (useful, light and small for the packing !).

Disney Studios was somewhat different to what I had remembered. Reading later I think we were there before just before the arrangement with MGM had ceased, and its more of a straight theme park now. This was open till 9pm, and by staying late we were able to do everything in one day. We ended up going to Fantasmic, which is a great show - but as it was unplanned my husband was shivering a little as the only one in t shirt and shorts (I had my trusty cashmere cardi stuffed in the backpack - which was not really quite the Disney vibe, but its really lightweight, and warm).

We ended up visiting Magic Kingdom on three days. There's just more in it, so it would take 2 days anyway, and we chose to use it for our 'do it again day' too. What can I say - we did everything - well, I didn't do splash mountain, and thunder mountain etc, because these things and I don't mix, but I did everything else ! and husband did some of the things I don't do as well ! As we arrived on the first day I spotted a photographer with a very short queue on Main Street, and (somehow) managed to persuade husband to get some photos taken. I loved the afternoon parade, which we managed to get a front row place for (generally quieter crowds) - Merida riding on her bagpipes was something else. We even visited Tom Sawyers island - this would have been a great place for a picnic lunch, but we'd already eaten it. We went on the teacups several times, I beat my husband at the Spaceranger Spin ! we rode Dumbo, and Aladin's carpet... It was different to when we'd gone with the kids, and there were places where we'd say 'remember... ', but it was still enjoyable, and I'm glad we went. Its just different when there's the two of you. And we ended our visit by saying goodbye to (meeting) Mickey just as we left the World.

Overall Disney is a great holiday experience. We have been so fortunate to have visited the World three times now, and California once, we have never been to Paris. However one thing I seriously did not like about this trip (are you reading this Disney ? ) is the new fastpass system. I do not like having to book fastpasses months ahead of your trip. I do not like spending time whilst going around the park trying to fight with the website/app and find connectivity to book more fastpasses on the day - I find all this 'production planning' takes away from the experience - I find it 'takes you out of the bubble'. We were experts with the old fastpass system and loved it, working it as one would the ticket system in a busy shoe shop. This new system is a nightmare. My husband works in IT and even he was muttering and grumbling about it. It is also unfair on people who do not stay in disney hotels and can only book fastpasses later, and I would think even worse for 'locals'. The other thing (which is related to the fastpasses) is that when thinking about Big Brother years ago I never imagined him wearing mouse ears ! I just do not like my actions on holiday being tracked.

The non theme park part of the holiday was an ecclectic mix.

We made an overnight trip to St Augustine - we stayed in a motel on the edge of the town , which was less than £50 for two including breakfast. A nice place, with an interesting history. We ran into the biggest school trip ever at Fountain of Youth, but such a very interesting place. There is definitely a bit of 'Blackpool' about the small tourist shops. We took a local tourist bus tour on arrival, which worked really well in showing us the lie of the land, and the context. What we didn't know was that the tram version gave you free parking - that is worthy of consideration, as parking is difficult and expensive.

We went to visit a friend of my husband in a local city - this was definitely not touristy, and took all day. It was good to do a real 'real America' thing.

We did the outlet mall thing too. We are not huge 'brand' people (I used to work in clothing manufacture... ) but did manage to buy a couple of Christmas presents here. I would say this is not the experience it was because of the exchange rate - and unless I had definite things I was looking for/wanting would probably not allocate too much time to this.

We visited Florida Mall, to find a birthday present for me from husband. This was one of the colder overcast days, and an inside thing was good. We enjoyed it, and I was given a lovely present, but again not top priority like it once was.

On our last day, before we flew home we went to Joanne's (craft and fabric supplies) - I loved this, husband said I was like a kid in a sweetie shop - I had a 60% voucher ! We then visited Winter Park - which is a really nice upmarket area, it also was beautiful weather. We had Saturday brunch in an eatery we picked at random on the street, and then later, a coffee in a small cafe, again picked at random.

The other thing we did was go to church. We went twice to a smaller church that we know of, and once to a much larger one (because it was interesting to experience a 'megachurch'). I liked meeting local people not in the tourist trade.

Regarding the practicalities, we ate twice in Perkins, which was local to the accommodation and very good - I also had a 20% voucher for the second visit ( I think I had tried and failed to sign up from UK, but managed to once in USA). We also went to Denny's once, for which we also had a 20% voucher. We did the big Walmart trip first day on arrival, but food was expensive here, and we did top ups in Publix - if doing it again I would go to Walmart for all the other 'stuff' and get the food in Publix. Also Publix had great Key Lime Pie !

What made the holiday even better - my 'go walk' Sketchers sandals (so comfortable for long days) - thank you The Dibb for that tip - and the insulated back pack (bought on Amazon) which we put picnic lunches in along with 2 frozen bottles of water in. The water acted as coolpacks, and then were put in the outside bottle carriers to melt and provide ice cold water.

It was a great trip - given us the bug for the US again ! We were scraping the ice off the car the morning we left to fly off, and we have come home to dark dreich weather. It was a good time to go for that reason alone, also pricing lower, and although lots of preschool kids about the parks are generally quieter as schools are in, we were careful to avoid Thanksgiving though.
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Old 27 Nov 19, 08:37 PM  
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Ivegottadream
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Sounds like a fabulous trip. I have wondered if Disney will still appeal once the children have flown, I'm glad to see it should.
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Old 27 Nov 19, 10:03 PM  
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MoragSybil
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I was not so sure ahead of time myself, and made sure we had plenty of 'other things' too. In reality it was different, different things appealed - no more queuing up for characters to sign autograph books ! But it still was a special holiday.
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Old 28 Nov 19, 02:48 PM  
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MacUK
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We are going next November as well, been a few times at that time, last in 2017.

I do agree with you on the FastPass situation, this will our 17th visit and have been through most of the changes at Disney over the last 25 years or so. Just turning up at the park and seeing what you could get on was part of the experience and back then the queues never seems as mental as they are today!

I was looking at some old footage of the Fireworks, Fantasy in the Sky and Wishes and for me they could be experienced from a lot more places in the park than you can now as most people want to see the projections. The upper level on the train station was a fab spot.
But i guess that's technology and progress for you!

Stayed at SSR in 2017 with the Dining Plan (still available back then!) which was amazing as we love spending time at Disney Springs but doing the Rosen Centre this time (stayed many years ago) which will be different, free parking helps!

I expect the Food and Wine will be different next year as it now finished late Nov rather than early Nov as it did in 2017. Epcot was like a different park once it had finished, so peaceful!
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