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Old 7 Jan 20, 09:16 PM  
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Goldia
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The Bare Necessities - Highs, Lows and Future Plans

Welcome to The Bare Necessities Trip Report. I’m Abby and I went to Orlando at the end of July 2019 with my husband David, our children Max (14) and Kate (12). We’ve been to Orlando before But this trip was different as we had my parents Jac and Tom with us, they will be referred to as Mum and Dad or Grandma and Grandad throughout the report. I was so excited to take them with us as this was their first time to WDW.

As is customary with a trip report following are some of our highs, lows and future plans.

We had 16 days in Orlando in summer 2019. We stayed at POFQ for 14 nights with the DDP. During that time we also went to Discovery Cove. We then had 2 nights at RPR and 3 days at the universal parks.
I asked Dave, Max and Kate 5 days after we got home for their highs and lows, favourite rides, shows and parks. I figured as it was all recent they would be able to remember it clearly and this would be better than waiting until I’d finished writing the trip report. It was all shared in a bit of a jumble so I’ve tried to group their thoughts together into categories.

I didn't ask Mum and Dad for their thoughts until last week. I've decided to keep their thoughts in their own separate section.

Ok here goes with some of the highs for Dave, Max, Kate and Me

Parks, attractions, rides and shows

The first thing that Kate, Max and Dave thought of was fast wait times – they all agreed it was great not having to wait in long lines at either WDW or Universal. They were right, the planning at WDW was done well (no I’m not smug at all) and the express passes at IOA and US were fantastic .

Kate said she loved the fast rides and Soarin when we were in row B1. We went straight there in EMH and I asked if we could wait for B1. I liked this too as I was next to Dad and it just blew him away.



Dave said he loved the parade, which I totally agree with as that was awesome and was a first for us .



We’d seen the Electrical Parade in MK on our first trip, but not the 3pm parade. Dave also liked swimming with the fish at Discovery Cove.

Both Max and Kate said they loved the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon. Then this reminded Max of Grandma and Grandad racing on the Blizzard Beach ride Downhill Double Dipper as Grandad got the same time as Dad and shot out so far he slammed into the end.

Dave said he liked Illuminations on our last night. I did too, it was fab to see it one last time .

I loved that Dad nearly got a full score on Buzz. He was so close to becoming a Galactic Hero and it was funny to see Dave and Max react to his score .



I was also really pleased that we nabbed a fab spot for HEA after the CRT meal. It was a great view and this trip I’ve really been converted on HEA I think it was my favourite fireworks show of the trip.



I was also pretty pleased with the perfect timing after Narcoossee’s for the electrical water pageant and then the HEA fireworks. We had our own fireworks cruise for free!



I liked doing the drawing class at Rafiki’s. That Pumba drawing is the best drawing I’ve ever done.



Hulk, what an awesome ride! A really smooth coaster plus I kept my eyes open the whole way round.

Food and Drink

Kate liked the Nachos and Milkshake she had before seeing Fantasmic. It just looks like a bit of a mess to me in the photo below, but she loved them.



Both the kids liked the ice cream from the Plaza.



Max liked Crystal Palace.



I asked “Because it’s buffet?”
Max “Yeah boy”

Max also enjoyed Discovery Cove. I asked “what about it?” I was thinking he’d say the swimming with dolphins or the lazy river or the ray pool. Nope
Max “the free food and drink”
Kate then said “Oooh yes the fountain drinks at Discovery Cove”
Me “Are you joking? They’re just regular drinks, aren’t they?”
Kate “The soda’s I liked them.”

I really did try to get to the bottom of this as I was intrigued so I asked “Are they different to WDW?” Kate “Erm, I just liked mixing them” I’m not sure why this featured so highly.



Max also said Cinderellas Royal Table
Me “Because of the Princesses?
Max “No the free steak”
He is right this was a highlight. Our server Ashley brought him out a 2nd steak as he’d wolfed down his entrée so quickly. A total surprise and a real magical moment



Max said the Kitchen sink as we finished it. Again, he is right it was fun to go back and conquer the sink.



Both Kate and Dave agreed Narcoossee’s was a great meal. I loved my surf and turf here too. Another highlight.



This then prompted Dave to say “All the posh restaurants were a plus for me”

Kate remembered that she liked the milkshake at Cowfish.
Me “The one you couldn’t finish?”
Max remembered that he liked it too and then he remembered he had spilled half of his down his top at Cowfish

I loved eating at Tony’s Town Square, our first ADR of the trip and a first for us as we’d not eaten here before. All three courses were great and we had the perfect parade view spot.

Hotels

Both hotels were a high. They were lovely.

POFQ was perfect with the boat to DS and the pool was great, it being small worked out brilliantly for us and we were close to the food court and close to the bus stop. It was a great resort and I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again.





It was our first time on site at Universal Orlando, with our 2 nights at RPR. We didn’t get to use the facilities as much as I’d have liked, but it’s a lovely hotel and it was great to be able to walk to the parks.

Other stuff that doesn’t fit into a different category – our Magical Moments

Dave said “I liked the 1st day it was really nice and sunny and not raining”. He’s half right. The first day was lovely weather, up until about 5pm when we went to Disney Springs and there was a drizzly rain. This sort of rain was a first for us in Florida and should have been a clue as to what was to come.

Another of Dave’s highlights “Just me and Max managing to get on the bus after Star Wars fireworks at HS” hmm fortunately there was another bus along moments afterwards and so the rest of us got on that one and we had seats.

Kate enjoyed using her wand again.



Max liked “Hiding from Dad when he was looking for us while we had our night swim at RPR”

Eric was a highlight for me After the dreadful bus situation in the morning of our third day when we missed most of EMH at MK I went to the front desk at the hotel and asked what time we should be at the bus stop to get to the parks for EMH. I suppose you could say I made a complaint, but I just wanted to know if the buses were less frequent at FQ and so therefore what time to get to the bus stop. Anyway, they said they would get someone from transportation to phone me and have a chat. I explained it all again to Eric when he phoned. I asked about when we should get to the bus stop in the future and Eric agreed that we had allowed enough time and that we shouldn't do anything different. He asked if we were going back to the parks and if so when. I told him we were returning to MK for dinner at CP. He promised that we wouldn’t be late and there would be a bus. He gave me his phone number and said if there were any problems any time I should phone him. I never did, I've still got the number though as it's a long time since a man gave me his number . When we got to the bus stop Eric was there waiting for us and the bus arrived 10 seconds later! This was such a magical moment.

I loved my Dibb meet ups. I got to have cocktails with OB1 and we all met the Walt4It clan at the Rose and Crown.



OB1 made a special trip over in the torrential rain, she sent her family off so that we could have a girly catch up and then she bought me a cocktail. So, of course I owe her one! 200 days to go now.



I also loved buying the balloon. It sat in our hotel room for the rest of the trip, but it sure did look pretty! It was still going strong when we left so we gave it away on our last morning.



On our travel home day I upgraded our tickets for Universal to annual passes and this was fab as travel home day is miserable but we all knew we’d be back and this just confirmed it.



The last category – taking Mum and Dad too

Max “My grandparents being there” He’d said this fairly early on in the highs/lows conversation, but you’ve got the conversation grouped into categories as opposed to chronologically.

Dave “Every time Grandad was picked to participate and it wasn’t me”. This happened at Enchanted Tales with Belle.





And of course at Hoop Dee Doo. We all agreed this was a high point. It was funny seeing poor Dad being sung to and swooned over.



A final thought from Dave “I think you were conscious of wanting your parents to have a good time and so didn’t really relax, and well a queue is a queue, we’ve done it before”. There’s not much to say in response to that as he’s not wrong.

It was great to take Mum and Dad with us and it made the trip really special. I did worry as I wanted everything to be perfectly, perfect in every possible way. So, Dave is right as that meant I struggled to relax and actually enjoy it all as much as I should have. Writing each day has been great and lovely to relive it all again.

This is one of my favourite photos of the trip. I never thought I'd ride the tea cups with my mum and dad.



Lows

Again this is just Dave, Max, Kate and Me. There really weren’t too many lows and most of them are hardly what you would call lows as they are more niggles or perhaps regrets of what we didn’t get to do.

I was cross that the sound kept cutting out on the speaker during our first viewing of Illuminations after the Biergarten dinner, this was really distracting and was very annoying. But we did manage to see it again on our last night at Epcot and this was a perfect viewing.

The long bag check lines at WDW and the scrum to get anything into and then out of the lockers at Universal.



We didn’t get to ride Primeval Whirl as it was closed the whole trip and I’ve read this now has seasonal opening and so I wonder if it will be open this summer, we’ll have to wait and see.

A regret for me was we didn’t get to meet Minnie Mouse this year. Max regretted ordering the kids meal at Satuli Canteen. Dave and me did not enjoy our prime rib entrée at Storybook Dining. This was likely our worst meal of the trip. Dave didn’t like “Freezing in Cowfish as the air con was turned up way too high”. I was sad that we didn’t end up having any of the QS or cocktails in World Showcase, we just didn’t get round to it as we were too full!

Dave “Weather the first 3 days” Now I think this is an under estimation of the poor weather as it was more than the first 3 days as day 4 was Discovery Cove and that was wet cold and wet. Plus the rain at the end was bad as we couldn’t use the pool at RPR. It is by far the worst weather we have ever had in Florida.



Max “Waiting for buses. There wasn’t really any waiting long for rides but it was too long for food and buses and characters”. He is right we did have some bus issues, but we also had times when we had no wait for the bus.



The long wait to meet Joy and Sadness was a real pain too.

I was so cross that I forgot the credit card at Discovery Cove and that we had to go back the next day. I also ended up wasting time getting the gift card sorted as it hadn’t been activated properly. I was at the front desk at the hotel for ages waiting for this to be sorted out. In the end though the money was allocated to the room and because of the inconvenience we were given 2 sets of free FPs which were really handy.

Kate was sad as “Grandma lost her bracelet at Epcot on our last night”

Favourite Ride

Kate - Tower of Terror, Hulk, Everest
Max - Rip Ride Rockit, Rock and Roller coaster, Hulk. He says "Universal has the best rides, but there aren’t many of them, Disney is more consistent”
Dave - Kali River Rapids. Er really? He said “Well it doesn’t scare me and I didn’t get wet but your parents did” hmm He also said “The big water slide no one else does” Er? Humunga Kowabunga? Dave “No not Typhoon Lagoon the other one.” And that was all we got out of him.
Me - Hulk, Everest, Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain

Favourite night time show

Kate and Max both said Happily Ever After at California Grill
Dave said it was a shame about the rubbish seats at Fantasmic and he thought Star Wars was the best. He’s right and that Fantasmic viewing really should have gone in the lows list as it was raining so we put off going into the stadium. Therefore, we were right at the back and we got wet. It was rubbish, which is sad as I love it.
I struggled to decide what was the best. I loved HEA both times, it was great to see it again from Cali Grill. But, it was also brilliant to see Illuminations for the last time on our last night and it was a fabulous view.

Favourite Character

Kate - Rapunzel
Max - Captain Jack. Er? But we didn’t meet him! Max said “He is the best though so there”
Dave said “Is it wrong I like Fortune Telling Daisy? Let’s say Kylo Ren”
I think my favourite was either the Evil Queen at SBD, she was menacing but she didn’t say much. The other one that I loved meeting was Gaston! He was funny and joked about my ears saying I should have worn ones with mirrors on so that he could look at himself.

Favourite Park

Kate, Max and Dave all went for Animal Kingdom and in a first for me I think I will join them in this choice. I’ve always said Magic Kingdom was my favourite park, but I think they may be right. This year we loved the trails at AK, we saw both the Lion King and Nemo shows, plus Rivers of Light (again in the rain though). The food at AK is brilliant as are the cocktails and we all love Everest, Dinosaur and Flight of Passage. Interesting though none of us 4 picked FOP as our favourite ride.

That's highs and lows for the four of us the next post will have Mum and Dad's thoughts and then a final entry for future plans
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 7 Jan 20, 09:31 PM  
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Old 7 Jan 20, 09:40 PM  
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Mum and Dad’s Final Thoughts

Now the part you’ve all been waiting for, or conveniently placed in it's own separate post so you can skip over it if it bores you! Only for the brave as there are no photos and a lot of words, with only a very little of it making sense. I found it funny, but then I am their daughter so I'm biased.

I’ve kept this as a transcript of the conversation as unraveling it all and making it coherent takes the fun out of the whole thing. For those who don't know I use a voice memo on my phone to record my notes each day on holiday as it’s really speedy and that way I can make some quick voice memos in lines or waiting for buses rather than writing it up by hand each night. So, I decided to record the highs/lows conversation rather than trying to remember it. It ended up being 22 minutes long, which doesn't sound a lot but it's over 2,500 words!

Also, Dad and Kate were eating peanuts throughout the recording and they were really noisy . They are the peanuts that are in shells too so they had to get them out of the shells.

It was a few days after Christmas and I’d given Mum and Dad a photo book I'd made of our holiday. I thought this might prompt them into remembering stuff. In fairness I don’t think they’ve forgotten things, but as they don’t know the proper names of anything I’ve struggled to decipher some things. You’ll have to make your own minds up as to what they mean.

Here goes.

Random Intro

Me “I’m on my final post of the Orlando trip report. The final post is a highs, lows and future plans post. Some people are interested in your thoughts. So, can you remember back to the summer?”
Dad “Highs and Lows…”
Me “Food highs and lows – if I give you categories does that help?”
Dad “Err”
Mum “Eating inside the fairy castle” She means Cinderella’s Royal Table
Mum “Avatar, the ride, amazing, amazing.”
My brother chimed in “What’s the one where Grandad got molested?”
Me “Hoop Dee Doo revue”
Dad “Oh yes”
Mum “Another one was seeing all the different areas and going to the different hotels like we did and eating in the different places, not eating in the same place. So, that was all the planning you put in”.
Kate was incredulous “Mum’s planning was your favourite part?”
Mum “If she hadn’t done the planning we wouldn’t have seen half as much”
Kate “We still would have”
Mum “Um. The rain was a bit miserable” yes it was
Dad “I don’t think there was a low point”
Kate “Maybe the extreme heat or the blisters”
Mum and Dad together in unison “I didn’t get any blisters”
Me “That’s good then no blisters”
Mum “A couple of the buses were a bit cold. I just remembered I had to get my throw out and wrap it around to warm up”
Me “By the way those peanuts that you’re cracking and eating is going to come out great on the recording”
Dad “You’re recording?” He didn’t stop eating them though and it was a pain as it was quite loud

A bit about Food – mostly waffle fries

I was trying to get things back on track, so I said “Food, what was the best food?”
Mum “It was all good” Great, but we're supposed to be thinking of highlights here
Me “Ok, the top 5 then?”
Mum “I liked the cinnamon bun, the cinnamon buns were lovely. The ice cream in the bowl that was fun.” Brilliant not the 2 credit table service meals, oh no, the $5.99 cinnamon buns...she is right though they are yummy
Dad “The sink” The kitchen sink at Beaches and Cream
Mum “We had a lot of rain there didn’t we.” She’s right we did have a lot of rain and the loudest clap of thunder you’ve ever heard.
Dad “What snack did we have that had loads of chilli on it?”
Me “The waffle fries?”
Kate “The chilli waffle fries are amazing”
Me “That was in Magic Kingdom”
Dad “That was on the first day or so, early on anyway”. Close, it was day 3 so it was early on.
Dad “We never had it again.” He'd said a few times on the trip that he loved the waffle fries and chili, but he's right we did only have them once, because I tried to do different things each day.
Mum “That Hoop Dee Doo was brilliant” Hang on haven't we done this already?
Dad “I didn’t like the cheese topping that they put on there”. I think he’s still thinking of the waffle fries and he hasn’t moved on yet.
Mum “I also liked the insect thing that we went to where they all scurried out at the end.” Mum has clearly moved on from the waffle fries and I think she is talking about the It’s Tough to be a Bug show.

I'm beginning to feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone as we're clearly having 2 conversations at once


Moving on from waffle fries to attractions


Mum “The only thing I wouldn’t do again if I went again is the old fashioned helter skelter type rides”. Nope I don’t know what she means either? Any guesses? Maybe Expedition Everest, is that a helter skelter type ride? Does she mean helter skelter?
Mum “The mountain one”
Kate “Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain?” I’m not sure naming rides was helpful as Mum doesn’t know the names of the rides.
Mum “No not space mountain. The ones when you’re on a train and you’re going around and you’re thrown from side to side.”
Me “Big Thunder Mountain Railroad?”
Dad “You wouldn’t do that again?”
Mum “Yes, I found them a bit shakey”
Dad “Was that the one where the track ends and you come to a stop?”
Me “That was Everest?”
Mum “We didn’t go back on that one did we?”
Me “No”
Kate “It’s annoying as I love those rides!”
Mum “That’s fine you went on it and we waited outside”
Kate “I felt a bit bad”
Mum “No don’t worry, it was fine. I preferred the simulation rides”
Dad “You felt a bit bad after you’d been on it?”
Kate “No, about you waiting”
Mum “Oh no we were fine”
Dad “How many times did we have to wait? Twice or something?”
Me “A few times, more when we went to Universal as you didn’t want to ride Hulk or any of those coasters”
Dad “I’m counting that as well”. He’s wrong it was a few times they had to wait. Maybe they didn’t mind the sit down and the rest though, so it suited them a bit too and therefore didn’t feel like they were waiting around for us.
Mum “It didn’t bother me waiting”
Kate “Do you remember the really wet rides that we did?”
Mum “Yeah, they were great fun, I really liked them”
Dad “I wish I’d taken my umbrella” Ho, ho, very funny

And we’re back to food

At this point I felt like we’d gotten off track and as I was keen for their answers to fit into the categories I’d written about for us I asked about the steak we had and the calamari Dad had on the first day.

Dad “All the food was great. That calamari was in umm the Magic Kingdom wasn’t it? Right at the main square part by the wall” He’s right we didn’t get to go on the railway this trip as it was closed so I guess he didn’t realise it was a station up there.
Me “It was called Tony’s Town Square. It’s an Italian restaurant”. This prompted Mum to think of a low...

A bit about Entertainment


Mum “I think I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see any parades at night time”
Me “That’s because there is no Main Street Electrical Parade anymore!”
Dad “Because we went into the restaurant we had the ticket to go onto the special area in the middle to see the parade, not that we would have missed it, but we got a better view from there”
Me “What about the Fireworks?”
Mum “The fireworks were all lovely. When Tinkerbell went flying across the Magic Kingdom that was lovely”
Dad “We didn’t have to wait long for the buses did we?” And we’re back to two different conversations, one that I’m having with Mum about fireworks and one that I’m having with Dad about wait times for buses and characters!
Mum “We saw fireworks by the lake too didn’t we?”
Dad “Maybe once or twice.” He’s answering his own question about the buses I think and not mum’s about the fireworks over the lake.
Mum “Two lakes actually Epcot and the other one. The fireworks were lovely. There was somewhere else we saw fireworks too where we were up on a stand. It was raining a bit”
Me “That was Hollywood Studios”
Mum “Oh Hollywood Studios not at Disney”
Me “Hollywood Studios is Disney, Universal Studios is the other one. At Hollywood Studios we saw a show called Fantasmic which had sorcerer Mickey, we were a long way away and it was drizzly. We also saw Star Wars fireworks at Hollywood Studios”
Mum “Yep, that was good”
Dad “Sometimes we had to wait quite a long time to get a photo with characters, that was half an hour at times and I could have done without that”

A bit about Lazy Rivers

Mum “The other thing that I enjoyed was swimming with dolphins”
Dad “The other lake next door to the dolphins was good with the fishes. I was thinking to myself that I wish I could have gone around the lazy river twice. Not that I’d have been able to remember where to get off. It was also annoying that the rain would come at half past two and we’d all sort of get up and go.”
Me “There was more rain than we were used to”
Dad “But we did have plans for the evening and we wanted to go back and get changed and stuff so it wasn’t worth hanging around. It was a pain when we had to get out of the pool. Was that at Disney?”
Mum “What?”
Dad “The lazy river?” Where did that come from?
Mum “No”
Me “There are lazy rivers at Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. Remember the one where Max had to help Grandma into the rubber ring.”
Dad “Where was that?”
Me “Typhoon Lagoon, I think.”
Dad “Is that Disney?”
Mum "No"
Me “Yes. There was also a lazy river at the dolphin swim at Discovery Cove”
Dad “Was that Disney?”
Me “No”
Dad “Was that the one where Max helped Grandma into the rubber ring?”
Me “No, that was Typhoon Lagoon. The rubber rings you sit in or lay on top of was at a Disney water park. The one where Max helped Mum was Typhoon Lagoon. The other water park was Discovery Cove but there were no slides, there was a lazy river though and there were noodles to hold onto. Because I said to you there are parts where you are out of your depth.”
Dad “I never felt I was out of my depth”
Me “Well at Discovery Cove there are patches where it was deep in some of the lazy river, but at Disney there were no parts where you were out of your depth.”
Dad “Well, I never felt worried about being out of my depth then”
Me “We all went round the lazy river first at Discovery Cove while you had a lounge on the sunbeds, there are some parts of the lazy river where you are out of your depth and you can’t put your feet on the floor. I think you’re thinking of the Disney lazy rivers which you are right and you were never out of your depth. As you’re not a strong swimmer I was surprised how many of the slides you did at the water parks. Maybe you didn’t feel like you had a choice?”
Dad “I’m not a strong swimmer, but I never felt like I was going to go under or into something that was dangerous.”
Me “Climbing up to the top of them is the worst part”
Mum “It is. We were lucky we had Max and Dave to help carry the rings up there.”
Dad “It was good going on the one where we had a race and it gave us a time at the end. What was that one?”
Kate “Oh yeah, Downhill Double Dipper.” I think she is right.
Dad “I went flying out the end of that one and smacked up against the edge.”

Back to attractions

Phew, we made it out the other side of the talk about lazy rivers, that was a hole I thought we might never get out of. The talk about the race on downhill dippers sparked a memory for Mum…

Mum “The other good bit was when Dad beat Max and Dave at the scoring thing.”
Me “Buzz Lightyear, I agree that was fun.”
Dad “I just wish I knew what I had done, don’t say that to Max and Dave though.”
Kate “I won’t tell them”.
Dad “I’m disappointed that Grandma took a photo of the score but it didn’t come out.”
Mum “But they saw it on the screen, much as they didn’t want to believe it, they knew.”
Me “They were convinced that it was broken and hadn’t reset at the start, but I don’t think so I think you just got lucky hitting one of the high value targets.”
Dad “Maybe one of the little ones down at the bottom”
Kate “Yeah maybe”
Dad “Food was good, lovely steaks”
Mum “Always a lot of choice”

Finishing off

Me “What was your favourite theme park?”
Mum “Animal Kingdom, that’s my favourite definitely” Seems like this was the winner this trip for all of us
Dad “The breakfast place we had with all the great big cakes, the cinnamon buns and the rotating…” hmm I don’t think that’s a theme park Dad and, of course, we’re back to the food.
Me “That was Garden Grill.”
Dad “Did we only go round once?”
Kate “We also had the cinnamon buns at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.”
Me “Yes” So Dad could have been talking about any number of breakfast places! Here we go again
Me “Do you mean the breakfast where Mickey and Goofy came to the table?”
Dad “Yes and there was some water going underneath, wasn’t there?”
Me “Yes, that’s right as it’s the Living with the Land attraction that you go through as it rotates. It’s one of our favourite restaurants, we love the dinner there too.”
Kate “It’s like a Thanksgiving Dinner”
Dad “Was that 2 meal tickets each?”
Me “No that was only 1 credit.”
Dad “Just one, that’s good”
Mum “There was a ride there we went on a couple of times too”
Me “Soarin? Or the one where they shoot you into space?”
Mum “That’s the one where we could be roles and go to Mars and the moon. That was good as well.”
Kate “You can be navigator, pilot, engineer or commander”
Dad “Max and Kate always picked the good ones.”
Mum “Yes I was the navigator and you were the engineer. There was quite a few in Epcot that I liked but I still preferred Animal Kingdom.”
Me “At Animal Kingdom we saw the Nemo show and the Lion King Show”
Dad “All those shows we saw they were good and there wasn’t much waiting for those as they have a good system with the doors open on one side and you go in from the other side.”
Me “The Beauty and the Beast and Indiana Jones shows were at Hollywood Studios”
Dad “Yes, there wasn’t much wait for them either was there. I remember the Indiana Jones one with the stunts. That was good.”
Me “What about the different transportation options?”
Dad “I would have got the boat more if I could, that was good. What was the one where we took the boat to the bar that was outside?”
Me “We took the boat from our hotel to Disney Springs.”
Dad “We went there by bus once too”
Me “Yes, because the boats weren’t running as there had been a lot of rain and the water level was too high”
Mum “The customer service was brilliant wasn’t it, really it was good. Everyone was so friendly.”

Lows

Me “Have you thought of any lows?”
Mum “Honestly there weren’t any. The heat was a bit much, but I had the fan and the cooling towel and I knew it was going to be hot.”
Dad “It wasn’t ever too hot for me. It was good that everything was paid for and you didn’t have to pay for anything on holiday.”

Future Plans

Me “Future plans?”
Mum “Well, when we get asked again we’ll think about it, if we get asked again. A Disney cruise?”
Kate “There is a Disney cruise”
Mum “Yes I know.”

And that was it, the end of the conversation and I suppose that is the end of the report. I’ll close with our future plans, although I daresay many of you already know that we’ll back in around 6 months!
__________________
Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 7 Jan 20, 09:46 PM  
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Goldia
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And Finally, Future Plans

2020 will be our 6th trip to Orlando .

No I don’t know how it happened.

Yes our first trip was a once in a lifetime trip.

I can hardly believe it myself.

We are back to the first resort we stayed in Caribbean Beach Resort. On our first ever WDW trip in 2014 we had a Pirate room and we’ve been back once in 2016 and stayed in the Jamaica area. It’s such a beautiful resort, the lake is lovely, we’ve seen turtles swimming in there. I’m keen to try out the skyliner as even though I don’t like chairlifts I think I’ll be alright with this as each compartment is fully enclosed. Plus, it seems like I won’t get a choice if we want to travel to Epcot and HS as the buses are greatly reduced now. The refurbishment of the resort and the Riviera Resort with it’s restaurants will be exciting to look around.

Once again I’ve upgraded the free QSDP to DDP. But, in a first for us we have 22 nights this year. Wow! We’ve never been for more than 16. But the Lufthansa indirect flights were such a bargain at under £500 each I couldn’t resist. We also have a couple of hotel hops and there are currently 4 hotels booked, if you count the airport hotel, which I do! I've no idea how the four of us will cope being in one room together for 22 nights probably we will be back to a max of 14 the year after

Mum and Dad won’t be with us this year, but they may return one day. I’m pretty sure they will want to come again. My middle brother was talking about a future family trip together and I could probably talk Mum and Dad into coming again for that adventure, but that is likely a few years off yet.

There are a few new attractions that I’m excited for this year. We didn’t get to do the Hagrid ride and Galaxies Edge opened after we had left Orlando so that was sad, but it means we have the whole land and the two rides to look forward to. The new Mickey and Minnie’s runaway train ride in the Chinese theatre is due to open on 4th March, which incidentally is Kate’s birthday. Also, I’m looking forward to HarmoniUs (not sure of the spelling) the new night time show at Epcot.

I made a decree that I'm now regretting that in 2020 we have to make an effort to do new things, that involves not eating at the same old places. I said we could all pick one favourite restaurant and then everywhere else has to be somewhere new. I’m finding that ruling hard to stick to though and ADR day is fast approaching. We will see what ends up happening. Hopefully, Space 220 will have opened by summer and we can try that out, also the =new restaurant in Toy Story Land.

If there is anyone left who is a) not sick of me and b) not already found it I’ve started a pre trip report for the 2020 trip. There is a link to the ‘Yo, ho a Disney life for me’ trip report in my signature. Do you see what I did there? I hope so or my other jokes are really going to fall flat!

Lastly, a few Thank You’s

Thank you so much to everyone who encouraged me that it would be a good idea to invite my parents along. You were right it was.

Thank you to everyone who was there for the pre-trip planning. I had loads of questions about this trip and the anticipation and excitement in the build up was fun to share with you all along with the eating around the world planning nights we had. It made the planning so much fun having you guys along with me.

Thank you to everyone who has liked or commented on the full trip report. I always write the reports for me as a keepsake as I know that I wouldn’t remember everything otherwise. It’s such a lovely bonus to be able to share each day with other people who enjoy Orlando as much as us. I’m really grateful that I get to talk about our holidays with you all and that you don’t get bored of me going on about it all. Your comments are always appreciated.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it all and if you’ve made it this far through the last post then you deserve a medal for perseverance.
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 7 Jan 20, 09:54 PM  
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Originally Posted by Tinkermom View Post
Oh how lovely 😊 fabulous memories made ❤️
Thank you - they really were fabulous
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 7 Jan 20, 11:21 PM  
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Lostbrain
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Sounds lovely, thanks for sharing. We've decided we're not going to fly this year, but planning to take my mum and stepfather to WDW next year. I'm a bit nervous about it, they've no idea the planning involved, last time mum went was 1990, and it was quite different then! Hope our trip is as successful as yours.

Epic trip this year! Very exciting.
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Old 7 Jan 20, 11:31 PM  
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Eccle
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Great trip, and great report. You managed to fit so much in. I know what you mean about it being harder to relax when planning for others, when we went with our friends it was an amazing trip but I felt the pressure of wanting everything to be perfect.

It’s really good your parents had such a good time as well.

Looking forward to the next one!
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Old 7 Jan 20, 11:50 PM  
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Abby - was an absolute delight to meet you and your family last summer
To read all that you managed to pack into your trip is amazing. Your thoughts about the next trip of trying places never visited before is well worth it ( you do need to return to certain places though!)

Look forward to reading all your future travels and Max's food choices too

Enjoy the countdown and planning to the next one, can only yearn for the same summer in 2020

A wonderful trip, wonderfully written with photos I can only ever dream of!

That first trip of a lifetime , has something to answer for

xx
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Old 8 Jan 20, 12:01 AM  
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Thanks so much for taking the time to write your report - it must’ve taken hours. I’ve really enjoyed reading it and am looking forward to finishing the last few days. I know what you mean about the planning - we went with my dad and his wife last summer and the extra responsibility of planning for them too definitely affected how much I was able to relax and enjoy the holiday. Hopefully next time is a bit more relaxing for you - can’t wait to read all about it. X
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Old 8 Jan 20, 08:44 AM  
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Loved this, and really enjoyed your trip report. Whilst you may have found it a bit stressful it is nice to see that your parents recognised how much effort you put in to making it a great holiday for them.

Thank you for posting
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