Garth and Louise's Graduation Celebration June 2017 - Day 7 - Magic Kingdom and Epcot

[LostPrincess]

Welcome to my trip report! The index is here, and day 6 is here.

Monday 19th June – Day 7 – IT’S DISNEY TIME!

This is it folks! The day I’ve been so excited to write but I’ve been putting it off because I’m not ready to face it! I’m really enjoying writing the trip report but seriously, nobody warned me it would hurt my heart this much… I need to go back Also for some reason I’ve lost loads of pictures from today which is really upsetting. **EDIT** the day after posting this on the Dibb Garth found the photos so I've added them all in- wahoo! **

Today started with a 5.15am alarm. Garth had set it to play Down in New Orleans from Princess and the Frog. As much as I love this song, it doesn’t half startle you at 5.15am, I still remember shooting up out of bed wondering what on earth was going on! I always set the alarm on my phone at home and the other day Garth set his instead and the same thing happened at home. It's not a good alarm song guys! We got up, had showers and finished packing up the room. Garth finished off the cinnamon buns we had got from Walmart and made himself a coffee while I had some cookies. We were all ready to go by 6.40am.

We were clearly proud of our outfits today!
The bags were a bit stuffed but we had just chucked everything in really so it was to be expected. We faffed around a bit, brushed our teeth and left room at 6.50am.

It's Disney time!

We took a few pics on the way out of the hotel.

We went to check out and the man asked if we needed a taxi but we were planning on ordering an Uber XL today. The receptionist asked if we’d had a nice time and we excitedly said yes but it was time for Disney now. He said “I can tell, you’re beaming! ” We had such a nice time at the Rosen Inn though and we’ll definitely be back. Checking out took no time at all and we were soon waiting at the uber bench for the last time!

Eladio was with us at 6.56am and helped us get our cases in the car. Garth got this pic of us en route!

Traffic was pretty heavy the whole way there. We waved goodbye to the Orlando eye as we drove past for the last time! We drove past a nasty accident and traffic eased up. We started seeing Disney signs! And then we saw the big sign, you know THE sign! And then… we drove around it?

The road was shut so we casually bypassed it as we entered Disney property We arrived at 7.28am and tipped Eladio for helping us with our bags. The journey cost $20.77. It was quite busy around and there was a really nice atmosphere it was SO exciting!

We got to the check in desk and Patsy got us sorted. She was a bit intimidating and struggled with the .co.uk part of Garth’s email but we were soon there! We asked for I’m Celebrating badges for our Graduation and we asked about the $200 gift card- we couldn’t pick it up at the airport because we were doing a split stay and they said they’d send it here. It hadn’t arrived yet and we were told to check back tomorrow. Garth said thank you and was about to walk off when I nudged him and said “what about our magic bands?!” We might be needing those! He reminded Patsy and we soon got our bands, mine pink and Garth’s blue! We left our bags will bell services and headed out to the bus stop.

We got to the bus stop where a bus was waiting, perfect.

We were on at 7.44am and arrived at 8am. We were hoooome!

Walking down Main Street for the first time in three years was overwhelming. We'd worked so hard through uni and we'd been looking forward to this moment and it was finally here.

We had a peek in some shops as we were still really early for the welcome show.

(spoiler: he bought this t-shirt later in the holiday!)
After snooping in the Emporium we went back outside to take all the atmosphere in.

We got the obligatory photopass pics

And a cringey one

But I can’t deny I kind of like having it to look back on! We got more at the top by the castle too.

Snapping all done we snacked on some oreos and found a nice spot for the welcome show. We had never seen the welcome show before! I just never got round to it with my family and on our last trip we were confined to a hotel shuttle so although it wasn’t the station show we were still super excited! We loved it and thought it was magical.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!

As soon as the show was over it was time for our first morning tradition of Splash Mountain. We were so happy to be back. A kind cast member gave me some Olaf stickers!

We made it to Splash Mountain at 9.05am, with a 10 minute wait posted.

We look so happy aw. I took a pic of the loading bay (why) at 9.10 so we must have only waited 5 mins. Unfortunately the ride broke 3 times while we were on it Once was right at the bottom of the last lift… you have no idea how many times we heard “time to be turning around”! I did my usual and posed for the pic before ducking down to avoid getting all soggy!

We were off at 9.30am. We used the Splash loos (very nice by the way) and topped up on some water. The queue was still only 15 but we had a plan today and a FP+ to use! We walked round to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and used our first fastpass of the trip! Even though it was only showing 10 minutes. We’d tried to get earlyish fastpasses so we could get extra ones later on.

We were on quickly and had a wild old time! I feel like the DLP version of this ride is a lot crazier but we both still love it! We were off by 9.45am. We didn’t really have a plan, we just wanted to take it slow and enjoy being back in the Kingdom so we decided to wait for the 10am departure of the Liberty Belle.

A little boat selfie there! Garth had been using the snapchat filters and I loved the little photo tags.

I love sitting on the deck by the railings on the riverboat. It’s great to people watch over to Frontierland. We were pulling back into the dock at 10.15am. The Muppets show was going as we walked past but we wanted to watch it from the beginning so we walked by and headed to Sleepy Hollow for a French Vanilla iced coffee. We LOVED these last trip. There was quite a queue, the guy at the register said just past 10 was the busiest time when everyone has finished their early rush to rides.

Our coffees would have cost $4.69 each without tax but we used our first two snack credits, lush! With our drinks we went and sat in the rocking chairs just round the corner and just watched the world go by.

It was so relaxing! Once we had finished our drinks it was 10.50 and we scanned in to our Haunted Mansion fastpass. I’m so glad we’d fastpassed this, the queue can get unbearably toasty outside! This is Garth’s favourite attraction at Disney World so he was buzzing. We were off in 15 and we'd had a fab ride. We had Keys to the Kingdom planned for later in the trip and were excited to get some of the inside secrets about this ride! On the way out Garth got this picture of Mr Toad in the graveyard- he loves finding the little details.

We also got some photopass pics on the way out.

I sent one to my sister and she asked how on Earth I was keeping my hair down and not sweating like crazy. Normally I really struggle with heat and have to have all my hair off my neck but it really didn’t seem too warm, not considering how worried we were about going in June. We nipped round and used the Tangled loos. I love this area. Tangled is my 2nd favourite Disney film, second only to Moana!

It was time for a visit to PhilharMagic next, can anyone skip this?! It was posted as a 10 minute wait but we were pretty much straight through. There was a little girl sat behind us singing along to all the songs, it was such a cute atmosphere. We had a look in some shops afterwards, always look up!

Our Peter Pan fastpass had become active at 11.50am so we went and scanned in. 70 minute stand by time… really?! I mean it’s a lovely ride, but we all say it, why the long waits?! While we were in the queue we booked our next fastpass for Pooh.

As soon as we were off Peter Pan we had a trip on the carousel after a 10 minute wait. This is a “happy to be waiting for the carousel” face!

and I love a mid-carousel action pic

After the carousel we walked round into New Fantasyland to go under the sea with Ariel. Before getting in the queue we used the loos and I got changed into my beauty and the beast skirt that I had bought with me. It was listed as a 25 minute wait but touring plans thought 19 minutes. We weren’t in a rush so we gave it a go! We had to wait in the sun to start off with and it really started to get hot. While we were waiting Garth got an email saying our room was ready! Building 5 2nd floor, woooo! We got off the ride just in time for our Be Our Guest lunch reservation. I was dressed for the occasion!

There were spits of rain as we walked over but it was just a few odd drops so we made it there still nice and dry. The queue was mahoosive but we had pre-ordered and everything so we didn’t wait long at all before being given this.

We headed over to the West Wing and the food came super quick. We had ordered French onion soup to share for starters

and we both ordered the braised pork and a fountain drink.

It would have come to $47.05 but we used a snack credit and two QS credits, bargain. The server complimented my outfit as she bought the food over, I had made an effort! The soup was absolutely amazing and we should have ordered one each. The cheese on top was so good. The braised pork was everything we remembered from our last trip as well, I really recommend it! It was nice to have some vegetables too. We weren’t having dessert today and we were pretty full anyway so we were leaving by 1.40. We got some pictures with the rose on the way out.

We did have a snoop around the rest of the restaurant too. It's such a beautiful place to eat and it'll be interesting to see what they're doing to it this summer. I definitely prefer it at breakfast and lunch though, I'm more of a QS fan than a TS fan but I love the combination here! We were leaving at half 1.

It was absolutely tipping it down now! We pulled our ponchos on and headed straight to our Pooh fastpass. We got given a red card which I didn't realise they did for fastpass queues before!

We went to book another fastpass but there weren't any good ones for MK so we booked Soarin' for this evening.

I love the cute interactive elements of this queue but you miss them all in the fastpass queue. We couldn’t complain though as a party of two were called forward and we were on the ride really quickly. We love a dark ride and it was good fun. I had a nightmare about this ride when I was younger just like Pooh's nightmare so I always find that part a bit terrifying but I made it out alive After Pooh we headed round to Pirates via the Adventureland loos but it was a 50 minute wait which was past our limit so we headed towards the Tiki Room. I’m a Tiki Room fan and I love looking around and seeing things all around you. There was a baby sat next to us who seemed to be a fan too, he was smiling the whole way through it was so cute Being in Disney World definitely makes you broody! We came out at 2.35 and it was still raining but we thought we’d scout out a spot for the parade anyway. We got a fantastic spot in Frontierland right by the gates. We had an amazing view but definitely felt the pushiness of everyone around us. Photo spam!

I didn't get a picture but Flynn even smouldered at me

As soon as the parade was over we headed straight to Frontierland train station.

This is one of my best memories of the trip- the rain was falling and the wind was blowing it right into the train and it was so uncomfortable but so funny at the same time. The castmember said as we were stopping at one of the stations “Ladies and gentlemen this is Walt Disney World’s latest water attraction… you didn’t want it and neither did we but you’re welcome! ”. We were soaked We looped round the park taking it all in that we were finally here and then got off at Main Street. The plan now was to head back to FQ, dry off a bit and then head off for an evening in Epcot.

We were waiting for the bus at 4pm feeling rather soggy and we were back at the hotel by 4.30pm. We checked our uni grades on the bus and they had been posted! This was our final assignment so it all relied on this. Garth got well into the first class margins but I only got 71… I had worked out I needed 72 overall to get a first eek. I decided not to think about it for the time being! We got back to the hotel had a proper look around.

Time to pick out our resort mugs! I chose purple and Garth chose blue, he still uses his all the time at home! I got a nice warm hot choc and Garth got a coffee.

Resort mugs in hand we headed towards our room. Walking through the resort we realised we were really going to love it here.

We did the tiny walk and went up the stairs and it was the first room on the corner. Here we arreeeeee

It was lovely.

Our view out of the front window

The double windows made it really bright and although the pool view wasn’t exactly a view of the pool it was still great. Feeling satisfied we headed down to collect our luggage from bell services. More pictures of the resort.

We collected our bags and tipped bell services a dollar for each bag. It was still drizzling on us but we made it back ok. Once we were in the room Garth did a good job unpacking and getting the room straight while I calculated all my uni grades! And my average came to 69.6! A first is 70! I had no idea if they would round them up so I emailed my tutor and again tried to forget about it. We had nice hot showers and ironed our clothes for tonight and tomorrow. We decided to open our bath and body works shower gel and my notes say “fabulous” so I clearly enjoyed it! We were ready at half six.

We were buzzing to go to Epcot at this point so we packed up our resort mugs for the evening and then headed out. We stopped off at reception to change a $10 bill up for $1s as we were low on tipping bills and we also asked Luke behind the counter to write “graduation” on our celebration badges. He was very friendly and congratulated us which was lovely, even though I was feeling a bit low about maybe missing out on a first by 0.04%! We got to the bus stop right on time for the Epcot bus.

I literally take any chance for a selfie I can with Garth! It's funny as I am not a selfie person generally and hate taking pictures of myself but on holiday with Garth I like to capture as many memories as possible! Even if it is just sitting on the bus

We arrived at Epcot 7 minutes later. I was loving staying on site already. Bag check was slow but obviously makes us safe so can’t complain. We got an obligatory photopass en route to Spaceship Earth.

We walked onto Spaceship Earth for our first Epcot ride. It was everything it's meant to be- relaxing, fun, and pleasant on the nose! Love the smell of Rome burning! We planned our future together of course.

Afterwards Garth went to the loo quickly and we headed to the land for our Soarin' fast pass. We were scanning in at 7.30. As soon as we were through we got another bonus fastpass for Illuminations.

That made a total of 6 fastpasses today!

It's Lemony Snicket!

There was quite a queue, we must have waited around 25 minutes but woooow it was worth the wait! I loved the music and the smells were so good. My nose sure was being spoiled today I was so pleased we’d managed to fit it in today it was brilliant, as much as I love the old one! As we left the land it was trickling with rain a little bit. We weren’t sure where the Illuminations fastpass area was so we nipped in the shop at the start of the World Showcase to ask. We asked Chad at the desk where it was and he took us over to the door and showed us, as well as advising us the best place to stand! He said to stand quite far towards the back as the floor is sloped anyway so you can see right over the heads of everyone pushing to the front. He was an exemplary cast member- thank you Chad! Next stop for us was dinner. We strolled round to China to the Lotus Blossom Café to have our favourite orange chicken.

We weren’t too hungry after our delicious lunch so we shared an orange chicken and a coke. Would have come to $12.98 but we used a QS credit. Garth had been looking forward to having orange chicken! At uni our local Chinese did an amazing orange chicken but we can’t find anywhere that sells at it home! This did not disappoint.

Notes say DELICIOUS! It was here when we realised that kind Luke who wrote on our badges had made a little mistake earlier...

Oh Luke! After we’d finished eating we walked round to France for our pudding. Still getting to terms with dining plan we just picked anything and hoped for the best! There was so much choice.

I picked chocolate mousse and Garth chose ‘Duo au Choco’.

Mine was a snack credit but Garth’s wasn’t so we paid $6.13 OOP- painful when we had all our credits still! He still insists it was worth it though It had to go through in two transactions and by the time we had finished we had 3 minutes until our fastpass closed wooops! So we legged it round the world showcase (probably burning off the calories of the desserts we hadn’t eaten yet!) and got to the fastpass area at 9.53- 3 minutes late but we got in anyway, phew! We dug into our puddings while we stood at the back waiting for it to start. While we were eating a castmember came over and asked if we’d seen the show before. He said he was a tech guy and the globe hadn’t flamed up the day before and they were out to keep an eye on it tonight and to see if they’d managed to fix it. He told us to ‘enjoy the show folks!’ and soon enough we were! I didn't take any pictures of the show. I much prefer to take it all in through my eyes and not through a camera lens sometimes. I always get goosebumps when the lights go out all around the showcase. The show was cut short unfortunately and not everything was working. The globe came out but it was hard to see what it was- a guy next to us said “what kind of a ball is that?” and our friendly castmember said “it’s earth!” Gave us a laugh! We loved what we did get to see of Illuminations and we weren’t too fussed because we knew we’d come back to see it again. I love that feeling of having so much ahead of you! When the show finished we made a speedy exit. Goodnight Spaceship Earth.

We got onto the bus by 9.20- how’s that for speedy!? We were pulling away at 9.23 and arrived ‘home’ at 9.33- perf. We had our very first experience of the feeling when the lights come back on After being up and out all day and then sitting in the dark for 10 minutes the bright lights are a shock and the whole bus made the same low groaning noise! Back at Port Orleans we had a peek in the shop and filled our mugs with hot chocolates. Disney hot chocolate

I love teddy bears so I love Duffy!

I can't wait to have my own house and to fill it with this.

We got back to the room by 9.45 and we chilled out writing up notes, doing the budget and backing up pics (which I've finally found wooo). I needed to jump in the shower again as my shoes had made my feet a bit smelly after I’d spent so long in them wet on our Seaworld day, sorry for the information but this is an honest trip report! They needed much Victoria Secret spray to ease the stink in that pair of shoes We watched Tangled Ever After in bed and crashed at 10.50. A FANTASTIC first Disney day!

Tomorrow we head to Hollywood Studios and get to know French Quarter a little bit better!


Steps today: 20742