The Disney only trip -including chocolate making, MNSSHP, and eclipse and EPCOT Food and Wine

[dippiedawnie]

Hi all

We have been back a month so this is a really late report 😬.
We flew on 16th August Manchester to MCO direct with Virgin on the 10.30 flight and then back again on 1st September
There were 3 of us,me,my DH and DS who is 14.

Highs
Almost everything- weather, food, shopping etc. Main highs were
Flying PE - never done it before and loved it. More room. Liked the snacks and having a proper mug for my tea 😀. One of the 1st off so quick through immigration. We used VA points so not sure what we would consider in cost to upgrade but I will be looking next time.

Best meals
Breakfast at Garden Grill-the sticky cinnamon bun is to die for.
Teppon Edo-1st time for us and have no idea why we haven't done it before.
The Plaza in MK. 1st time there 2 and ended up going twice.
Ice cream at Beaches and Cream-always a winner.

We managed to do EPCOT food and wine on our last day. My favourite food was in Italy. Shrimp pasta with vodka tomato sauce. Very nice.


We did the short 3 night cruise down to Nassau and Castaway Cay on the Disney Dream. We have done this 5 times now and it never disappoints.

Highs on the Cruise
Our DS loved Vibe-we couldn't get him out. He made so many friend from all over the world that he still messages now and he enjoyed the freedom of being able to leave the club without having to be signed out. On the last night he stayed till it closed at 1am. We were in bed asleep when he got back to the cabin 🙄.

We ate in Palos which was wonderful. I had steak and I think it was the best I have ever had anywhere. The most entertaining part of the night though was listening to the couple on the next table who were obviously there on a work trip with Disney. The guy was passing on his wisdom to his colleague so we could hear him name dropping and talking about work he had been involved in. I drank too much wine to be able to remember much of it but it was interesting at the time!

We did the chocolate factory tour in Nassau. They basically take you by bus, show you around and then you make your own chocolate. They chill it and give you a lovely presentation box to bring it home in. (If you haven't eaten it&#128512. We enjoyed this as it wasn't a long trip or as expensive as some of the others!

Disney World
MNSSHP-we went on 29th August. It wasn't too busy, managed most rides except Peter Pan and big thunder mountain both of which broke down and 7DMT which had a long Q all night. We collected loads of candy, had lots of photos taken and loved the parade and fireworks.

Accommodation
We are DVC members so we stayed for the majority of our time in the Boardwalk which we all love as so handy for 2 parks.

shopping
We were in premium outlets when the not quite total eclipse happened. We had taken eclipse glasses with us and ended up sharing them with about 50 people including shop assistance that kept coming out to look. Was kind of cool being there for that.
I found some good deals in Kate Spade and stocked up on bath and body works stuff.

Watching the MK fireworks from Top of the World lounge. Never done that before and round do it again. Not as good as seeing them in MK but a cool way to relax and enjoy them from a distance.

We did do 1none Disney day-we went to Gatorland and due to a very generous Dibber (donna1974) we had 1 ticket for free so it didn't cost very much. My DS hadn't been before and he enjoyed it.

Lows
I was unwell before we went-we were in A&E till 1am the day we flew. Luckily they said I could fly but it meant I could only manage shorter days so I didn't get to do as much as I planned but was just VERY glad we were able to go as it did look like we would have to cancel.
Shorter days also meant less rides. I missed FOP as was not well the day we had fast passes. The boys went on though and loved it. I will have to do it next time.

We stayed 4 nights at BLT and it wasn't for us. We found the staff unhelpful, other than getting back from MNSSHP it took ages to get anywhere, the monorail kept breaking down and the pool was boring. The 1 bedroom we had was huge but other than that we won't be rushing back.

Return journey-we sat on the plane for 3 hours before it took off. First the delay was as some people were missing, then they said ground grew had found a fault on one of the hatch doors which had to be fixed and then it started thundering and lightning and we had to wait for the storm to pass. We did make up some time but still landed over 2hrs late.

Other than that it was another successful trip

Will be giving it a miss for a couple of years now 🙁 But plan to go back when more of the new stuff is open.

Xxx