Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Disney We Go Finally - Day 1 - IHOP, Seaworld and Applebee's

[caitlinsmummy]

Welcome to another trip report! I'll start off by introducing the family:

Myself (Kelly) - Chief planner and organiser

Husband (Chris) - The laid back photographer one

Caitlin (15) - Total drama llama and moody teenager totally glued to her phone all the time

Thomas (13) - The cheeky brain box one

Noah (8) - The cute one. Noah is autistic and struggles with change so holidays are quite often a challenge for him

We have been to Orlando as a family twice before, Oct/Nov 2018. We stayed onsite at Port Orleans Riverside for 14 nights with the free QSDP (upgraded to DDP) We also threw a night in at Royal Pacific Resort in Universal to make use of the express passes, you can find the trip report here.

We returned in May 2019 for 9 nights. We stayed on International Drive at The Rosen Inn International, our first off-site stay. We visited Seaworld, Busch Gardens, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, Kennedy Space Centre, Universal (with a nights stay at Hard Rock Hotel) and 1 night at Caribbean Beach Resort and a day at Magic Kingdom/Hollywood Studios. The trip report is here.

Our plan was to return May 2020 for 19 nights staying on-site with the free QSDP and also 12 nights in a villa over New Year in December 2020 and just doing Universal, as with many others both of these were cancelled. We settled on May/June 2021 believing this would go ahead and obviously it didn’t ☹ so we finally settled on February/March 2022 and if this one didn’t go ahead we wouldn’t rebook due to the kids and GCSEs etc so we had everything crossed it would!

We were delighted when the travel ban was lifted in November 2021, so got to full on planning again. This time we’ve had 4 nights at The Holiday Inn, Lake Buena Vista and 17 nights in a beautiful Dibb Villa in Emerald Island Resort just off the 192, about 15 minutes from Disney. The pre trip report is here if you’d like to read.

Day 1 - Seaworld

So as usual jetlag got me good and proper and I was wide awake at 4.30am with only 4hrs sleep thanks to our delayed plane and chew with the bed situation lasy night I laid and wrote our first blog up which took a lot longer than I anticipated … I can waffle

At 5.30am Thomas woke followed by Chris, then Caitlin and Noah woke with the alarm at 6.30am, bless him, he’s been awake almost 24 hours by the time he went to sleep last night.

I had arranged for our stroller from Kingdom Strollers to drop off at 7am, so I got up showered and dressed and Caitlin and I went to the lobby of the hotel to collect it. We arrived at 6.58am just as the van pulled up! Couldn’t have timed it better if we tried. The guy was great, showed us how to the put the stroller up and back down and explained it how it would be collected. I informed him it was to be collected from a different address and he told me to email to update the address. We didn’t have the villa address when we booked this. We took the stroller back to the room, finished packing the kids lunches/snacks in the bags, suncream on, packed up the car and headed off to IHOP for breakfast. When we visited in 2019 we struck IHOP off as we'd had a bad experience and didn't enjoy the food at all. We gave it a second try and we all enjoyed it today but just found it very expensive!

We were seated immediately and our server was lovely too.

We all ordered drinks, with the boys going for chocolate milk, Chris and Caitlin orange juice and I just had an iced water. We then placed our order.

Thomas went for the 2 x 2 x 2 which was 2 eggs, 2 bacon or sausage, 2 pancakes with hash browns. He really enjoyed this although he didn’t like the hash browns.

Caitlin went for the Breakfast Sampler which was 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, 2 ham and hash browns. In hindsight none of us knew why she got this as she doesn’t like eggs or hash browns and she ended up not liking the ham either , she’d have been with a build your own or 2 x 2 x 2 like Thomas. Pancakes weren't pictured as they were brought much later (around 15 minutes!)

Chris went for a create your own pancake combo, 2 pancakes (I choose chocolate chip) 2 eggs, 2 bacon or sausage and hash brown. Chris really enjoyed his.

Noah had the kids silver dollar which was 5 smaller pancakes, eggs and bacon. He did really well and managed 3 of the pancakes and about ½ the egg.

I obviously didn’t order anything, I managed half of one of Chris’s pancake and Noahs 2 pieces of bacon.

The total bill came to $51.89, we added $10 tip making it $61.89

The food was much nicer in this IHOP, however, we all agreed we don’t think we’d go again, I just think it’s quite expensive for what it is really and it’s definitely not a place we love, everyone much preferred Denny’s.

Next we headed off to Seaworld. It was very busy, but we were visiting on a Sunday, the day before Presidents Day so it was to be expected.

We went straight to guest relations and registered for the DAS pass, but not before measuring Noah to see what he was tall enough for!

We walked round to Manta and did that first, whilst Chris and Thomas went on with rider swap Caitlin, Noah and I went to go see if we could get a return time for Journey To Atlantis. As we were walking towards it I noticed there was no water … yup you guessed it, it was closed. So we headed back round to meet Chris and Thomas off Manta. Thomas loved this, last time he was too small to do the big rides so he was looking forward to doing them all this time, it was also my first time as last time I only rode Kraken due to wait times.

We rode Kraken which again he loved, Noah was annoyed because he wanted to go on but was too small, maybe next time little dude. We did the penguin experience again and the boys had a look around the shop. We went and rode Mako and the kids were hungry so we found a slightly shady spot for them to sit and have their lunchables, crisps and rice krispie treats for their lunch. It was almost 1.30pm now.

I had my eye on the favourite thing I ate last time at Seaworld which was the pretzel bites from Mama’s Pretzel Kitchen. Caitlin likes pretzels too so we decided to get a regular pretzel and a pretzel dog to share with a cheese dip of course. The pretzel dog came with some house made chips. Noah tried them but didn’t like them, Thomas ate the majority of the chips, they were really tasty. The pretzel dog had a strange flavour I thought (wonder if it’s because it’s a beef hot dog) but it was still nice, the pretzel was also tasty. I didn’t manage as much as I thought I would but then again pretzels are carb heavy and I struggle with them, so a bad judgement choice from me. I ended up having trouble paying with card here so I paid cash.

I don't have the receipt but I'm sure this came to around $25 with tax

We headed round to Sesame Street Land where it was absolutely heaving! More so than the rest of the park!

Not sure about anyone else but we always find sesame street land a complete sun trap. We were going to ride box car racers but it was 2.30pm now and the return time was 30 minutes. Everyone was flagging with the heat and jetlag, we decided to headed back to the hotel so the kids could go in the pool

Noah was beginning to struggle with the crowd levels and it was now we were glad we hired the stroller as he got in and pulled the hood down to shut everything out. We found last time the stroller was a safe place for him and he could shut himself off from what was going on so we decided to hire one this time too, even though he's 8. We've explained he is only to use it when he's struggling not all the time as he's very capable of walking

It was parade time so we got stuck for around 20 minutes waiting for it to finish so we could cross. We had a slow leisurely walk towards the exit. We asked if the kids wanted to see any of the shows but they weren’t bothered, they just wanted to get back and go in the pool!

We popped to Walmart on the evening as we needed some disposable bowls/cutlery for the kids cereal and some charging cables for Thomas’s phone and Noah’s tablet. The kids seen the McDonalds on the way and insisted that’s what they had for their dinner I had planned Texas Roadhouse or Mannys Chophouse but the kids really couldn’t be bothered and to be honest I was feeling the jet lag too from just 4 ½ hours sleep. Thomas and Noah got chicken nugget happy meals, Noah with milk, Thomas with coke. Caitlin got 2 double bacon cheeseburgers and a dr pepper, I have a feeling we also got another drink for Chris and I to share whilst they were eating but I can’t find the receipt from McDonalds, I do have the transaction on my Revolut though.

Everything came to $19.33

Back to the hotel and the kids went down to the pool. Mr Grump and I sat this one out as it was pretty cool by the time we got down there (12C) but the kids loved jumping in and out of the pool and weren’t phased at all by the weather

After the pool Chris took the kids up to get showered and sorted and I went to get us some food from Applebees. Chris wasn’t feeling great at all so he told me just to get whatever. I was torn between the beef dip sandwich and the broccoli and chicken alfredo pasta.

In the end I went for the chicken alfredo pasta, this was $18.75.

I really enjoyed this! The sauce was tasty as was the chicken and pasta, Chris had some too but he didn’t enjoy it, we think it was more down to him not feeling great than the actual food. This was what I managed, Chris probably ate around 1/3 of what was left.

Whilst sat waiting for my food I realised I'd had a bit of a wardrobe malcfunction and the string holding my dress to the button had broken so I was almost flashing everyone! I sent Chris a pic who found it hilarious. I think it was due to my cross body bag rubbing throughout the day, so I popped to the little shop on site on my way back and grabbed a sewing kit for $3.20 fully intending to try and fix it at some point (spoiler alert I didn't and it's currently in a pile for the MIL to fix )

When I got back Noah was having some supper of frosties and was fast asleep by 7.30pm, I was not long after and feel asleep writing up the blog on social media at 8.20pm I woke at 4.30am to find myself laid on my phone

Noah did absolutely amazing today, we had 0 meltdowns and he understood what was too much for him and took himself for downtime in the stroller which was fab

[Rescuer]

Can I just start by saying you look absolutely stunning in that dress Kelly ( pre wardrobe malfunction of course) 😂😂

Looks like you all had a great day at a Seaworld despite it being busy, shame about Atlantis being closed though.

How was Manta? Ds really wants us all to go on that in the summer. I love Mako and Kraken. I remember years ago riding Air at Alton Towers I wonder if it’s like that.

[lfc_sarah]

Great day especially with no meltdowns for Noah 😊! I'm glad you got a stroller in the end as I'm sure if helped.

Funny story about the dress, it looked lovely before it broke!

[P&S]

What a lovely day at Seaworld

Hurray for no meltdowns for Noah and hopefully he will get on more coasters next time you go, good shout with the stroller

Kids and pools! They never feel the cold

[Taffy1959]

Great day at Seaworld and the pretzel bites look so good

[rafjen]

Glad you had a good first day- my youngest is desperate to be tall enough for all the rides too

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Can I just start by saying you look absolutely stunning in that dress Kelly ( pre wardrobe malfunction of course) 😂😂

Looks like you all had a great day at a Seaworld despite it being busy, shame about Atlantis being closed though.

How was Manta? Ds really wants us all to go on that in the summer. I love Mako and Kraken. I remember years ago riding Air at Alton Towers I wonder if it’s like that.

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Ahh thank you so much Wendy, I was absolutely loving being able to wear dresses on this trip! Another non-scale victory for me

It's very similar to Air, I personally don't like air I find it boring Manta is a better I think definitely give it a go if you go x

Originally Posted by lfc_sarah

Great day especially with no meltdowns for Noah 😊! I'm glad you got a stroller in the end as I'm sure if helped.

Funny story about the dress, it looked lovely before it broke!

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It really did and even Chris said he was glad we'd got it for him. He did use it to tell us he wasn't coping when he pulled the hood down but no meltdowns thankfully.

I was mortified luckily I had a bra on underneath, I just felt a little breeze and thought it was strange then looked down and seen x

Originally Posted by P&S

What a lovely day at Seaworld

Hurray for no meltdowns for Noah and hopefully he will get on more coasters next time you go, good shout with the stroller

Kids and pools! They never feel the cold

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It really was he did brilliant and we told him it just meant we'd have to come again when he was bigger, he was happy with that.

Honestly, I sat at that pool with my hoody on and I was freezing, teeth chattering and everything xx

Originally Posted by Taffy1959

Great day at Seaworld and the pretzel bites look so good

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The pretzels were so good, they didn't taste as nice as I remembered though x

Originally Posted by rafjen

Glad you had a good first day- my youngest is desperate to be tall enough for all the rides too

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So annoying for them isn't it. bless them. Hopefully they'll be tall enough to ride them soon X

[mick]

Great first day

Joan

[Goldia]

A fun first day in Seaworld, although a shame Noah wasn't quite tall enough to enjoy the big boy rides! Still..there's always next time! I love that the kids couldn't be bothered with the shows and just wanted to head back to the pool. Seems like everyone was wiped out after the super long travel day and an early night was needed.

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by mick

Great first day

Joan

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Thank you x

Originally Posted by Goldia

A fun first day in Seaworld, although a shame Noah wasn't quite tall enough to enjoy the big boy rides! Still..there's always next time! I love that the kids couldn't be bothered with the shows and just wanted to head back to the pool. Seems like everyone was wiped out after the super long travel day and an early night was needed.

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He is such a little thrill seeker, it's not a bad thing to be fair though. It also means that we need to go back again for Noah to ride the bigger rides

We wanted to have a much more 'relaxed' holiday this time so we listened to our bodies, we were all so tired and hot so pool time sounded great x