Are We Going To Mickey Mouse World Mummy? Highs, Lows and Future Plans

[caitlinsmummy]

The full report is detailed here

I will try my best not to repeat things I have already said and I hope to not waffle as much as I normally do! So I'll start off with the lows. Now I've really struggled here because I can't really think of any lows that hugely impacted the holiday and would make us think we wouldn't do that again! :

Lows

1. Heat

Now this is going to sound like a moan and I don't mean it to be so I apologise now I know it's a lot warmer in Florida than here so we did expect it, but going in October/November we expected it to be mid to late 20s ... however, most days it was in the early 30s and it was just too warm for all of us, especially the kids. I think this is probably one of the reasons we had the meltdowns and annoying each other.

2. Not being able to eat around the F&W Festival Properly

Each time I'd planned to eat around the world we didn't get chance for some reason or another. When we finally did, we'd had lunch at BoG and we were just way too full to enjoy it properly and try everything we wanted to as it was also a full day and we were exhausted. I think next time I would plan a full day in Epcot rather than half days to try and do it.

I honestly can't think of any other lows apart from Chris losing Noah ... TWICE but I won't go into that again

Highs

Pretty much everything

Flight

Our flight with Virgin was great, it was a shame we weren't seated next to each other but it wasn't a massive problem. Noah coped amazingly well on the flight and the attendants on both flights absolutely adored him we had plenty of food and drink and nothing was too much trouble. Pilots and crew were great with the kid's too.

Port Orleans Riverside

I know at the beginning of the report I moaned about the distance our room was from the food court and next time I would request a closer building as we really didn't get to utilise the refill mugs but the resort itself is absolutely beautiful. If we stay here again I hope we could spend a little more time around the resort doing the activities and exploring it. Everything was so jam packed we barely spent time at the resort. The staff were so friendly and helpful and nothing was too much trouble. The room was great, yes it's a little small but for the amount of time we actually spent in the room it was fine.

Buses

The onsite transportation was great. We never really had any issues with the buses apart from the odd time they didn't turn up on time. As much as I thought we'd left enough time to travel we ended up running late to a lot of ADR's so I think next time I'd add a little extra time on. Buses were always clean and tidy and the drivers were always so friendly too.

Food

Well we all know I love food as much as I moaned about a few of the meals, overall we really enjoyed the food at Disney. I understand it can be expensive paying OOP and I don't think it's worth the value, however, on the DDP it is definitely worth it. It was hard to adjust to the different flavours to start with but we soon got used to them. The portion sizes are so big and regularly the kids would share 2 meals between them ... heck I even think at times Chris and I could have shared meals between us I know Disney food gets a lot of stick for price and as I say OOP I'm not sure I'd pay the prices, however, we did find some lovely little gems there such as Wolfgang Puck Express, Blaze and Tony's Town Square.

The Parks

The parks were great. We never really had too many issues with crowds and the layout was quite easy to follow (although I struggled a bit in HS to start with!) The parks were always clean and tidy, the CM's were always so polite and friendly, we never met one grumpy or sad CM! The rides were fab and it was great to get the kids out of their comfort zones and trying new things (Caitlin with ToT).

Universal Annual Pass

Upgrading our 14 day tickets to Annual Passes. Now this did take a bit of time as I was determined to get them for $0 but it was so worth it in the end as it now means we have 15 months on the passes! I did eventually manage to upgrade for $0. Absolute bargain.

Bags

We I couldn't do the highs without my beloved bags now could I? If you read the report you'd know I'm a shopaholic ... especially when it comes to bags. Those who haven't read it here's my bag and purse haul (although there is 1 bag missing as I didn't photograph it!)

I'm already preparing my list for our next trip sssshhhh don't tell Mr Grump!

Characters

The character interactions were amazing. We didn't have one bad character meet and we never felt rushed at all. My favourite one has still got to be the Thing meet it was amazing how well Noah connected with them, second I would have to say Donald taking Noah round the restaurant dancing at Tusker House on our second day is another favourite and Caitlin's meeting with Ariel when she was upset and Ariel taking the time to come back twice to see she was ok

To be honest I feel I could go on so much more but I don't want to bore you The biggest high of all is:

The kid's faces

Even though they moaned and fought quite a bit their faces throughout the whole holiday was amazing. Their faces when they got to sit in the cockpit

Their faces on our first morning

Their faces on the rides

Their faces meeting the characters

Even though they were sad to be coming home they still had smiles on their faces at the airport

But little did they know ...

Their faces on Christmas morning was priceless

Future Plans

So our future plans mean we will be back in 45 days! The pre trip report is here. The plan was to not do Disney as we're only going for 9 nights, so we have SeaWorld, Discovery Cove (Dolphin Swin), Busch Gardens and Aquatica, Kennedy Space Centre and Wonderworks tickets as well as our Universal Annual Passes. However, I found a great deal on Disney 1 Day tickets with Musement so I just had to get them Chris and the kid's don't know yet so I'm going to reveal it the day before. I've also booked a nights stay at CBR so will surprise them all when we go for food that night. We're staying at the Rosen Inn International and will have a day of shopping thrown in somewhere too obviously haha.

After this there aren't any set in stone plans, however, I am hoping to squeeze a sneaky week in around October or next January/February before our Universal Annual Passes run out. I'm also looking at booking 3 weeks at the end of August/September next year but I'm waiting for free dining to come out before that's set in stone. Fingers crossed!

I would just like to take the opportunity to say thank you everyone who read or commented on my report, I read and try to reply to every single one of you. I never imagined I would have such a response to the report at all but it's been amazing, so thank you all again. Hopefully you will follow the next journey with us too!