4 Hotels, 12 Theme Parks!?! Call That A Holiday? Yes, I Call It Heaven! May 2017. Day 11 Disney!

[gjdjud]

Day 11 Disney here we come!

INDEX

So all up super early today with a spring in our step as we were finally heading to Disney! We'd done most of the packing the night before so it didn't take too long to ship out. I went searching for a luggage trolley to make it easier to load up the car but couldn't find one anywhere so I ended up doing several trips down to the car with the cases which was annoying but hey ho. We loaded up and were off saying a fond farewell to Cabana Bay but I'm pretty sure we will be there back one day.

We were soon in the Disney area, it was very noticeable the amount of building work being done on the Disney roads though.

There were lots of roads being re routed so the sat nav took me the wrong way and I ended up doing a U-turn near Disney Springs to get back on track as we headed towards Port Orleans Riverside where we'd be for the next 10 days.

It was amazing how familiar the roads and area were from last time. We soon arrived and were so excited as we drove in. It was around about 7.30am when we pulled in. We were asked to show ID at the gate. We parked up near the front leaving the bags in the car while we checked in.

It was a very nice looking resort and didn't appear to have changed much since Kelly and I were here in 2006 on our honeymoon. It was very quiet in the reception area so we didn't have to wait long to be seen by a cast member. She wasn't particularly enthusiastic though. We were given our Magic Bands and we also got birthday badges for the girls. The room wasn't ready yet which was what we were expecting and she said we'd get an email when it was ready, she could give me no information on the location of the room. She did say that we didn't need to check in again and that our Magic Bands would open the room.

We then got our luggage from the car and left them with guest services for the day rather than leaving them in the car. We weren't hanging about(so we thought)as we were eager to get to the Magic Kingdom and to get Disneyfied! The girls really wanted to get the bus and I was fine with that for the first trip. It saves getting the monorail etc. Unfortunately when we got to the bus stop it was incredibly busy. We didn't get on the first bus as it was full which was a first for us from a resort. We had a frustrating 20 minute wait. The bus stop area was heaving and they eventually sent in a CM to direct things. If this was the state of play then we'd only be doing one bus trip this holiday! We were first in line for the next bus, thankful we hadn't booked an early adr. Numerous people didn't get on this bus as well and I reckon they needed several more for people wanting to get to the Magic Kingdom. I was a little worried that POR was going to be really busy due to the amount of people moving from the building works at Caribbean Beach Resort.

Once we got going the excitement soon kicked in and it was great seeing how excited the girls were. I found it a little upsetting when Lily was shouting she could see the magical moment of seeing Cinderella's Castle for the first time but knowing Evie couldn't see it.

Bag check was fine and we all got through the Magic Band readers with green lights and not the dreaded blue light. We were in about 8.45am and it seemed incredibly busy on first impressions but we weren't to worried about that at the moment.

First thing we did was to head to City Hall Guest Services to get the DAS card for Evie. Again like Universal this was very easy to do. Evie had her picture taken and the DAS was added to her Magic Band. It was explained that anyone could ask for DAS return time to ride something for Evie but Evie must be the one to scan her Magic Band first. While waiting Evie discovered a Braille Map of the Magic Kingdom which she was delighted about.

Once done it was just before 9am and we were all in agreement where we should start off. A meet and greet with Mickey. I hadn't fastpassed this as I'd done those for later. There was small line ahead of us but it actually took around 30 minutes to get in to see Mick. Much to our delight it was a Talking Mickey. The girls went all shy again like they do around characters for some reason. It really was clever how they did the talking Mickey. On the way out Evie bought some Mickey Ears as well.

We headed onto a very busy Main Street trying to take some pictures.

We were all pretty hungry at this point not having had breakfast so we headed into Main Street Bakery. The pictures aren't great on this on I'm afraid. It was pretty busy and we were a bit overwhelmed at finally being at Disney.

Kelly and the girls all got walnut brownies.

.

I got a Mickey ears cinnamon roll.

All were good. Mine was lovely as it was warm.

We used 4 snack credits on these.

Once done and after having some photos of the castle, the plan for today was head left and see how the day would take us. For some reason Adventureland and Frontierland were our least visited areas on our last trip so we thought we'd remedy that today.

First stop was Jungle Cruise. We used Evie's DAS card and were ushered straight on which was nice. Our first Disney ride of the holiday. Cheesy and a bit naff but we enjoyed this. We got stuck trying to get off the ride though for quite awhile as the boats were busy so it took a lot longer.

Next was our first Fastpass on the holiday. Big Thunder Mountain. Can you believe this is mine and Kelly's 4th time together here and we'd never done this! Always seems to be on a refurb. I was a little worried if the girls would find it too scary so I was a little anxious on the approach to the ride. The fastpass line was huge which was a little frustrating. I'm guessing there must have been a an issue with the ride. The fastpass line did move quickly though. I did notice to clear the backlog they held back the stand by line for ages letting all the fastpass folk through. That must have been frustrating for them. The ride itself was fun and the girls enjoyed it.

The girls were now eager to try Pirates Of The Caribbean as this was being refurbed last trip. We got a DAS return time of 30 minutes at was fairly busy. Our second fastpass selection of the day, Splash Mountain, was available in 10 minutes so we headed over there first.

The stand by line was a whopping 70 minutes already. I was really surprised at how busy it was everywhere. This was to be the case the whole 10 days unfortunately. This was our 3rd time in May and we'd never seen it like this. We pretty much walked straight on to the ride though with our fastpasses and we all enjoyed it We didn't get too wet either. It's a deceptively large ride as well which always takes me by surprise.

Once we'd done Splash Mountain we headed back to use our DAS for Pirates Of The Caribbean. If anyone is interested in the DAS the return time is valid until you use it. You won't be able to get another one until you use this one. It did make Evie's life easier as some of the queuing areas are incredibly awkward for her. Evie has to scan her Magic Band first which comes up as a flashing blue light. They check the screen and see it's DAS and then we can scan ours and they are green. The girls surprised me by saying they enjoyed this ride. I was keeping an eye out for Jonny Depp as the latest film was out that week and he's been known to pretend to be the animatronic and surprise people. Kelly said she'd be jumping out of the boat to him if he was there. I tried not feel jealous knowing if I suggested the same about a lady I'd get a slap.

After this the fastpass window had opened for Haunted Mansion(do you like how they were all located close together). Again amazingly this was a first for us. I'm not sure why. There was a small fastpass queue but it didn't take too long. In the queue I was able to make another fastpass for later as we'd done our 3. There wasn't a great deal about but I got Its a Small World for later in the day. I sat with Evie and I'm not sure how much see could see and I don't think she enjoyed it but I thought it was fine. The ride broke down mid way through which didn't help Evie but it wasn't down for too long.

We were all pretty hungry by now so we decided on lunch. Columbia Harbour House was the place.

Not my first choice to be honest but we were in the area and it was busy and hot so I thought we'd try here. I'm not a fish man but I was pretty sure Kelly and Evie would enjoy it. It was busy inside and took awhile to get served but once we did we got seats easily enough.

Kelly and Evie both got the tuna sandwich which came with potato chips. Both enjoyed but Evie didn't finish.

Not a great deal of choice for me so I got chicken tenders. These were actually pretty good.

Lily wasn't hungry so didn't get anything. 3 q/s credits used.

While having lunch I got an email saying the room was ready and we had got a great location. I had requested block 16 which was the building closet to the food etc without being a preferred location. Block 16 was what we got and I was absolutely delighted with that. I'm not sure which method worked but I'd did requests via Disney online check in, Touring Plans and as recommended by PortOrleans.org I sent a fax 5 days before. I found an app that did one fax for free and did this while we were at Cabana Bay.

Lily really wanted to ride Peter Pans Flight. This was very busy and we were given a return time of 35 minutes with the DAS. We walked round and surprisingly saw there was no queue for Mickey's Philomagic. This is always an underrated one. Now to test something that I had been really worried about. There aren't too many shows at Universal so we hadn't had to ask to much but I was worried about getting as close as possible to things so Evie could see as best as she could. I asked the first CM we saw and she directed me to another CM who was more than happy to help. We explained she was visually impaired and he led us to the disabled access and then led us to the front row which was fantastic. Disney, the whole holiday were nothing but fantastic and always accommodated us on every occasion we asked. I worried so much about it before the holiday like many of you read about in the pre trip report but I shouldn't have worried at all and won't do in the future. We all enjoyed this but I picked up a dodgy pair of glasses which was a bit annoying.

It was by now time for us to use our Fastpass for Its A Small World. You have to go on this at least once every trip. The girls enjoy it. I think Kelly was sad that her mum wasn't with us this time as it is her mums favourite.

It was very busy around this area especially near the Tangled toilets.

Peter Pan next. Not much to say on this. It is what it is. Bit awkward for Evie getting on the moving track but she coped well just like with Haunted Mansion. I think Lily was even a little disappointed with the ride. I think she'd been wearing rose tinted glasses.

We didn't really have real plan from this point. I managed to get a fastpass for Goofys Barnstormer for 10 minutes time which was nice. The queue when we arrived was huge. Do people not know about Fastpasses?!? The girls loved this on our last trip and they count it as their first proper rollercoaster. They sat together leaving me and Kelly squashed in together. I think again it wasn't quite as fast and as thrilling as they remembered but they both enjoyed it.

Our plan was to see the parade today so we decided to get the train round to our preferred area to watch from which is near the main entrance. We had a short wait for the train. It was incredibly busy. We were hoping it would be the train called the Lilly Belle. This is the nickname Walt Disney gave his wife. We had no idea until after our Lily Belle(spelt differently) was born but we love this fact. Unfortunately it wasn't the Lilly Belle for us we just missed it going past.

I was hoping the train would storm along allowing a nice breeze to cool us down as it was so hot but it's not really quick enough!


Once we arrived at Main Street we headed to our spot which was annoyingly taken by someone else. There was a space near by so it was fine. We like to get close to one of the bins. I stand behind and kids sit beside it. The Cm's don't allow anyone in front of the bins so we know nobody can jump in front of us. Evie was using her cane today(much to her annoyance) so I was hoping that no one would be that cruel to block her view. We were next to a man who was wearing a pristine baseball cap showing he was retired US Navy. A young man who was selling balloons came up to him to thank him for his service. Can you imagine that happening here? We had quite awhile to wait and Kelly asked if there was a special area where Evie could watch from. There was but to be honest she was going to get just a good a view from where we were so we stayed put. It was a very hot wait and we got bottles of water and the girls bought water sprayers with fans(correction, Kelly bought them for the girls) these were good but they never used them again as they were too lazy to carry them anywhere. We were at the end of the parade route so it felt like an age to start but once it got going we all enjoyed it. We really felt we were at Disney now. Some of the characters and dancers came very close and we got some good interaction although the girls always have issues with anyone on stilts! They are weird sometimes.

Once the parade was over we decided to call it a day so that we could get our room and luggage sorted. It had been a pretty good day but we were very surprised at how busy it had been. We were hoping it was just a one off. We headed to the bus fearing the worst but we didn't have to wait long at all and there were only a few people ahead of us. It took awhile though as I forgot it went around all the stops first before getting to the main one where we needed to collect our car.

We'd also get the luggage ourselves rather than getting Bell Services to do it. We quickly loaded up and then were on our way to our room. We were in Alligator Bayou which is a preference of ours over the Mansion style. It was very easy to find and in no time at all we were pulling up outside block 16 and on the hunt for room 1652 which was on the second floor(one flight of stairs).

I was really pleased with this location. We were just a stones throw away from one of the quiet pools and close to the food court(close in Disney terms). We took some pictures of the room before it was destroyed.

We had plenty of room for all our cases which we had brought up with us from the car. There were a few arguments about who was sleeping were and so on. We had a little unpack before I took the girls down to the quiet pool for a swim. We didn't realise that at these quiet pools there are no towels which was a little annoying. There were a few people about in the pool but it wasn't overly busy. I'm going to be honest here. This was my least favourite pool area out of the four hotels. Many would love its quiet feel and location but I personally found it a little dull but it's location to us was great so made use of it most of the time. The girls were happy with it though which is the main thing. Kelly came down to the pool after a little while and even graced the pool with her presence.

Soon towel less we made our way back to the room to get dried off and changed. The original plan had been to go to Disney Springs this evening but we didn't really fancy it. We'd been disappointed with how it was now when we first arrived(that seemed so long ago) for our ill fated trip to Cirque that we weren't that desperate to return. We instead headed over to the food court to have dinner, have a look around and grab or refill mugs. It was a short pleasant walk of only a few minutes to the food court. It was a lovely place but again if being honest wasn't in your face enough Disney for us. When me and Kelly went on our honeymoon it was perfect but with young kids I was thinking maybe a Value would have been better? Having said that as I'm writing this I'd give anything to be there now!

Riverside Mill Food Court hadn't appeared to have changed much since we went in 2006 on our honeymoon. Good selection of different things. We also got our refill mugs here as well. We have a couple of meals and snacks here so wil post a few pics of the food court on this post and then just the food on the others.

We all kind of shared on this meal. We got a large cheese pizza. This was 2 q/s credits. It was ideal to share. It was pretty good. I think you could get Pepperoni as well.

We then got a turkey cub sandwich as well. This was really nice.

The pizza as it was 2 credits came with 2 drinks , the sandwich one drink. We had our refill cups so swapped the drinks for 3 snacks. We got 2 red velvet cakes which were lovely.

I got a m&m cookie ice cream sandwich with mint choc chip. One word. Epic.

3 w/s credits used.

On a side note q/s credits can still be swapped for 3 snacks at POR.

Once done we headed over to Ol' Man Island to have a look at the pool. I tried to get the girls to believe there was an actual old man there that would come out at certain times of the day and wave a stick at them telling them to get off his island. I don't think they believed me. The pool looked more fun and we said we'd try on another day.

I wanted to take a walk to where me and Kelly stayed on our honeymoon. We found the room easily enough and brought back some nice memories. This would be classed as a preferred room with water views these days. On our honeymoon we were originally given a mansion room. It was very dark and had two queen beds instead of the Kingsize we requested. Kelly cried so being a dutiful new husband I took her back to the check in desk and we were moved!

After our visit down memory lane we headed back to the room. We finished unpacking and were were all fairly wiped out so it was an early night for us all. A good day and were all so pleased to be back at Disney!

[collybird]

Very poignant what you said about Evie not being able to see the Castle, you have all been very brave. Still smiling Evie is an inspiration.

We successfully used Touring Plans room request twice, I've subscribed for another year purely for that service. We're at CSR this year and with all the construction I'm really to have a room where I'd like.

[Gill247]

Another great day. For a busy park you still did loads!

[gjdjud]

Originally Posted by collybird

Very poignant what you said about Evie not being able to see the Castle, you have all been very brave. Still smiling Evie is an inspiration.

We successfully used Touring Plans room request twice, I've subscribed for another year purely for that service. We're at CSR this year and with all the construction I'm really to have a room where I'd like.

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Thank you for that She did really well all holiday.

I wish I new which method got us the room but no way of knowing

Originally Posted by Gill247

Another great day. For a busy park you still did loads!

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What you can't see in the pictures is my whip that makes everyone walk faster

[Pumba75]

Another lovely day. Great about the Braille map & reminiscing down memory lane. Now I really fancy a Mickey cinnamon roll!

Mrs P

[EJSakaAnna]

Lovely to be back at Disney, you got lots done in MK even with it being busy! Dinner looks yummy x

[gjdjud]

Originally Posted by Pumba75

Another lovely day. Great about the Braille map & reminiscing down memory lane. Now I really fancy a Mickey cinnamon roll!

Mrs P

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It was lovely

Originally Posted by EJSakaAnna

Lovely to be back at Disney, you got lots done in MK even with it being busy! Dinner looks yummy x

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Thanks for reading

[Excitedx4]

Great day at magic kingdom!

[gjdjud]

Originally Posted by Excitedx4

Great day at magic kingdom!

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Thanks for reading

[ronnieroobs]

Nice to see you've reached Disney