First time on DDP April/May 2018... You used a snack credit on what ! Complete

[slaleyhall]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Just like you we have crystal palace lunch on put first day.
We have been for dinner before and loved it. Plus it is the only place dd can meet piglet. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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It was so nice and we will be back for sure, glad you enjoyed dinner we might do that

[slaleyhall]

Day 3 – Animal Kingdom – Saturday 28th April
Today started off the same as yesterday as there was EMH 8-9am so we were up and out by just before 7am, so a bit earlier as we had managed to get up and out a bit earlier.
Mia had a good nights sleep but woke up with a stomach ache so insisted she had some paracetamol and tablets so settle her tummy and thank god she agreed.
We went down to the marketplace to fill up our drinks and grabbed a bagel, a banana and a chocolate chip muffin and tapped the magic band and charged to the room. Its all too easy to tap the band and charge to the room. Next time we go I’ll be popping to Walmart for bananas as $1.60 per banana is a joke !
Mia did well and ate half a bagel and the banana and said she felt ok, yippee we have finally turned the corner and she was on the mend. Again, im not doing very well with a food report as with Mia’s tummy ache and rushing I didn’t take pics again. Buttering a bagel on my knee in the car proved difficult over the 2 weeks but doing this gave us extra time in the bed that the kids needed, rather than sitting down for breaky.
We managed to get completely lost on the way to AK, not sure how we managed it but we went totally the wrong way thanks to the sat nav and lost 10 mins so was a good job were had been up and out early. We were parked and hit the queue by 7.20 and there was lots of people in front of us, all hoping to get straight into Pandora and on FOP.

When I was able to book our FPs’ at 60 days out I was able to get 1 for FOP but not until 5.30 and I knew we wouldn’t still be there at that point, so I booked Navi River journey and hoped we could get on during EMH.
Well, what can I say they let everyone in at 7.35am and it was hilarious and like the 100 metre sprint. People were sprinting past us as we walked in with the kids. By the time we had done a fast walk the queue for FOP was already well over and hour and the kids didn’t want to queue that long. So, I found a cast member what our other options were and she advised us to walk straight to Navi river journey and we would walk straight on and we did. Wow, what an amazing ride, very clever and well thought out. We loved it.
We walked around Pandora soaking it all in and its unbelievable, they’ve done such a good job and then went across to Everest. Mia had been tricked onto this ride in 2013 when David told her it didn’t go fast and she would be fine. She wasn’t fine and for the whole holiday she asked every cast member in a queue if the ride went fast, backwards or in the dark. David has never lived this down, poor Mia. Anyway this time, she was being brave of her own choosing and after the initial shock she loved it and we came straight off and went on again. After 2 goes though, she’d had enough of being brave, so me and Mia waited for the lads on a rock and put sun cream on.
We walked back and used our FP for Navi River Journey as it was so pretty. Once we got off we walked across to Festival of the Lion King and looked in the shops and had some pics taken along the way. Before going into the show, we sat down and got drinks and snacks. Mia was really flagging in the heat by this point and needed a sit down to cool off, so got a Mickey head ice cream sandwich,

I got a frozen strawberry bar (basically frozen strawberry puree with lumps shaped into a ice lolly. Very yummy indeed and very refreshing.

Finn decided on a packet of crisps to cool him down and a Powerade.

As I had got the lolly, ice cream and crisps I made the mistake of going into auto pilot and using snack credits for all 3, when I should have paid oop for the crisps.
David got himself a diet coke and paid for both drinks, so we didn’t think this through well as the powerade is $5 so should have used a snack credit for this. We figured we were just learning still and would get it right next time.
After the Festival of the Lion King show we went for lunch. I had researched places in advance knowing what Mia will or wont eat and Restaurantosaurus serves fish and chips. So I had the earth day burger and as I have an allergy you have to wait forever for 1 cooked separately. Great they are taking care of people with allergies needs but we do wait twice as long for food.

David had a chicken club,

Finn a cheeseburger and his also came with a chocolate brownie and Mia fish and chips.

Everyone had coke that you help yourself too apart from me, who had a margarita. This was far stronger than I expected and I was actually a bit tipsy with the sun too…..oops This place has a little topping bar in the middle of the seating area and we were able to fill up our burgers with lots of things from lettuce, sautéed onions, pickles, tomatoes etc and was a good extra we weren’t expecting.
After lunch we got soaked on Kali River Rapids and the kids were hilarious wiling the water the land on the people on the other side of the raft them killing themselves laughing when it did lol, so after our soaking we had a wander in the shops then left the park.
We got back to the hotel and in the pool I’m no time and had a good few hours of fun by the pool. We knew Mia was on the med when she asked for a portion of fries and a strawberry slushie, thank god, she was on the mend, we were so pleased.

We had originally planned on eating at Cape May tonight but as we had done this on our first night we had cancelled this ADR and went to Disney Springs for a QS tea and mooch around. We decided to get the resort bus as we thought we might fancy a drink but in the end neither of us had 1 with our meals so could have drove, but the bus was ok. We waited about 10/15 mins at our hotel and it took 15 mins to get there, so not bad really.

Due to us liking different things we split up, me and Mia headed to Cookes of Dublin so we could both have fish and chips and the boys went off to Ponte Pizza. Cookes was super busy and people were sat on the floor outside so that’s what we expected we would have to do. As we queued to order, eagled eyed Mia spotted a couple leaving a table and swooped in and grabbed it, what a good girl she is. We both ordered fish and chips and a coke and used 2QS.

This was really yummy, obviously they aren’t chip shop chips so I can take or leave those, but the fish was gorgeous.
As we were eating the boys caught up with us and to my absolute horror, neither of them had taken a pic of their pizza on their phones. Surely by day 3 of the hol and me photographing everything everyone had before they ate, would have sunk in by now, but clearly not . So when we went back to Disney Springs on another day I made David go in and take a photo of the counter so I can share it with you lovely people who need to see pics of pizza.

We had a lovely wander around and I got Mia a Disney Pandora bracelet and charms and she was the happiest princess ever, Finn hadn’t seen anything he liked so was now on the grumpy side of things.
We were quite tired by this point so headed to the bus stop where we waited forever for a bus, about 20 mins, so with tired legs this felt like forever and the kids were really flagging.

Thankfully we got a seat on the bus so all was good and we headed back to our room for bed.
Tomorrow was a waterpark day so we were getting a sleep in

[Custancia]

I'm really enjoying reading your report - thank you for taking the time to write it.

[minnie29]

I'm loving reading your report too - thank you!

[Lullington]

Loving reading. Thanks for posting

[Sparksy72]

Thank you for your report and pics. We are doing the DDP next year and it is great to see all the different choices for TS, QS meals and snacks. That strawberry ice lolly looks so refreshing 😊

[Mexy02]

I’m sure your are building up credits so why not buy what you fancy lol. No point taking back loads of sweets if you fancy a bag of crisps instead .
Great report so far x

[MissFortune]

Glad Mia was finally on the mend!

Thanks for sharing, I'm loving that it's like a mini trip report.

Originally Posted by Mexy02

I’m sure your are building up credits so why not buy what you fancy lol. No point taking back loads of sweets if you fancy a bag of crisps instead .
Great report so far x

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I'm also interested to hear how the approach with saving snack credits rather than using on drinks/cheaper things worked out for you.

I was totally tempted into doing the same our first few DDP trips and in the end had spare credits to use on "stuff" to bring back.

Now we just use credits as & when on whatever and pay OOP at the end of the holiday IF we run out (which we haven't yet).

Looking forward to more!

[slaleyhall]

Originally Posted by Mexy02

I’m sure your are building up credits so why not buy what you fancy lol. No point taking back loads of sweets if you fancy a bag of crisps instead .
Great report so far x

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The plan changed again later in the trip as you're right they were mounting up

[slaleyhall]

Day 4 - Typhoon Lagoon – Sunday 29th April
Today we had a bit of a lay in as Typhon Lagoon doesn’t open until 10am. As we had more time on our hands, we went down to the Market place to fill our drinks and get some breaky. We sat on the seats just outside with really high bar stool type seats.
There aren’t many tables at all, but they do have a few more actually outside on a little patio area.
Finn munched his way through his now favourite chocolate chip muffin plus a big chocolate chip cookie,

David had a bagel,

as did Mia.

I went for the very breakfasty millennial pink raspberry cream cheese puff. This was amazing, just like a gorgeous big éclair with a sharp and tangy raspberry filling. Very sticky and fiddly but very yummy.

After having our breaky we headed out to Typhoon Lagoon and the car park was almost empty at 9.45am so we parked right at the front and got through security when I realised I had left my phone in the car, queue me being told im an idiot by my hubby as he goes back to the car to fetch it…..oops.
We went around to the locker area and got our free towels, this is really handy when staying onsite, not having to pack beach towels. We got 2 each and no one cared that we did, so that was great as 1 simply does not cover the rubbish sun loungers at the water parks.
I know I’m no doubt in the minority and accept I’m a bit weird but omg how I hate sand. I cant stand the feel of it and don’t get me started on trying to put sun cream on near sand !
We bought 2 of the refillable drink mugs at $11.99 each plus tax and shared 2 between us, throughout the day.

So after a few slides (the kids, not me) and a few rounds on the lazy river, it was time for lunch. We weren’t too far from Typhoon Tilly’s so we headed there as I knew Mia could have Fish and Chips. God forbid she strays from this and has something different or new.
So the kids grab a bench in the shade and me and David go to order. I get the whole order done at the till and mention I have a tomato allergy. Well you’d have thought I was an alien from mars. The cashier is talking in some secret code to who I assume to be a supervisor and she is talking back but to the cashier and not me. So basically the supervisor was saying that they would want to serve me due to the potential risk. I do get they want to be safe, but this is super annoying when all I wanted was a Caesar salad. So the order is cancelled and we are told to go to the main restaurant, Leaning Palms where they are geared up to deal with allergies and have a special separate section in the kitchen. So, we arrive at the Leaning Palms to find they don’t serve fish and chips, this is the worst news Mia has ever heard. The kids grab yet another seat in the shade and I decide its best for Misa to actually eat something and send poor David back off to Typhoon Tilly’s miles away and I order food for the rest of us. After ordering our food and explaining about my tomato allergy, we are sent to wait at the side of the restaurant. We must have waited about 15 mins for my tropical chicken salad and Finn was chewing his own arm off by this point with the hunger. Finally, it was all ready and off we went to the table and luckily David arrived 2 mins later with Mia’s fish and chips. As we had the refillable drinks we didn’t really need extra drinks but the kids wanted slushies, so me and David were able to get 2 bottles of water for later on in the day instead of a fountain drink

David had a Turkey Muffuletta sarnie with crisps

I had the tropical chicken salad with tomatoes

Finn had the pepperoni pizza with fries and a blue raspberry slush

Mia had her usual fish and chips

Plus we got 2 waters two take away with us for later
After the food we went back on the lazy river and the kids went in the wave pool then we decided to call it a day. We went and got changed in the changing rooms which were nice and clean and called, and the kids wanted Dippin dots so we called and got them some Cookie Dough dippin dots and used a snack credit for each of these.

The plan was to go to the Premium Outlets but Finn had been driving us mad over wanting a pair of Jordan’s and our life wouldn’t have been worth living if we hadn’t have changed plans and gone to the Florida Mall at that exact moment !
We were really surprised that it only took us 20 mins to get the mall and it was lovely inside. We went straight to the sport shops and a pair of Jordans were found were quickly, which was great as we had 1 happy boy. Mia’s went off to Lush and found some extremely stinky bath bombs plus a $25 tub of slime, yes more slime. But obviously this was an essential purchase as it had sprinkles in it, what else can I say, we had 1 happy girl too.
I knew that Carlos’s bakery was in this mall, so I had to go in and get some cakes. I came out with a cannoli and a piece of carrot cake, which was the biggest slice of carrot cake I’ve ever seen.

As we were out already, we had planned to eat at Golden Corral tonight, so we looked up the one that used to be Wood Grille at the top of International Drive. Its really clean as we had eaten at this one in 2015 when it was Wood Grille. Now, I know some people hate Golden Corral but we like it. My kids have always liked how you can pick what you want and try new things, plus they love the chocolate fountain and the candy floss you can get. The service was amazing, our drinks were always refilled and our waitress was always checking on us. We had a few plates of food as you can see and all were really yummy. I love the fried chicken here and their awesome pot roast is absolutely awesome. We left a 20% tip here as service was fab, will defo continue to go back to this one. We had a variety of salad options which were really yummy, Mia was as adventurous as normal and had cucumber and fries, we also tried the fried chicken and the awesome pot roast, yum yum yum

Not entirely sure what David was eating here as I was up getting my food and he did it again and didn't take a pic before starting to eat, so I had to do with this !

Finn loves the mac and cheese here and always says no others ever taste as nice. We then got a bag of candy floss each for the kids and we took that away with us, the carrot cake is amazing as the cake to frosting ratio is good for me, lots of frosting. They have lots of pieces of fruit or krispy treats for you to dip in the chocolate fountain which Finn loved.
We headed back to the hotel and had a quick hour in the pool before heading into Epcot for our FP for Epcot and then the fireworks. Test track is fab but even better when its getting dark and the kids love this ride too. We walked through the world showcase and stopped at Karamel Kuche in Germany for some caramel apples to share,

a strawberry slushy for Mia from Joffry's and a donut for Finn, we used snack credits for all of these.

We sat near Germany and ate our snacks and waited for the fireworks to start. The all important Jordan's

These are so beautiful and I love the music that they play, it is so emotional. After the fireworks, we walked back to the hotel as we needed to be up and out for HS in the morning.