"Tale as Old as time... Another Disney Trip Report" The Pre trip report Sep/Oct 15

[Tashaglobal]

I’ll start off my pre trip report by introducing the cast, I’m Tash, 24- I work in a well-known carvery restaurant as bar team leader. My hobbies include photography, going to gigs, and eating out. I’m a massive Disney fan and even worked in Disneyland Paris during my Uni days. I’m originally from Birmingham but moved to Essex over 2 years ago to live with my girlfriend (it’s not all as TOWIE as I first imagined! )
This will be my first time going to Florida or even America that I can remember (I went when I was 2 but have no real memory of it) and I can’t wait to go!

The 2nd and last cast member on this trip is my girlfriend Kim, she’s 28 and a nurse in London.
Her favourite hobby is shopping! Needless to say she is pretty excited to be hitting the outlet and other malls while we are away.
She’s also a big Disney fan, and spent most of her younger years wanting to be Belle when she grew up. She has been to Disney world once as a child about 18 years ago before there was even Animal Kingdom etc. and so she is excited to see how things have changed.
She has also visited Disney Land Paris and in 2013 went to Disney Land in LA (Quite rudely she went without me and went on a holiday with her best friend instead- she had a lot of making up to do with Disney related holiday presents! )

I have inserted the obligatory photo of the 2 of us here:

This holiday has been a long time in the making (and waiting! ). We first booked this trip in June of 2014, about 3 days before we went on holiday to Egypt and I basically spent the whole week talking about how excited I was to go to Disney world in 400 and something days!
We now only have 31 days until we depart, leaving on September 26th from Gatwick, staying one night prior to flying at the premier Inn at the airport, and we return on October 10th  We are staying at the Coronado Springs Resort and we upgraded from the Quick service dining plan to the Disney Dining Plan. We booked through Disney so have all the perks that you guys already know about.
We made our ADR’s 180 days out and at 60 days made our fast pass selections.
As I already said both me and Kim are foodies and love eating out so I’ll try and make this a bit of a food and trip report.
We have ADR’s as follows:
BOG Breakfast, lunch, and dinner (Did I mention that Kim once wanted to be Belle?!)
Ohana
Chef Mickey’s
50’s Prime Time Café
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
Tony’s town Square Restaurant
Crystal Palace
Cinderella’s Royal Table
Tusker House
Tepan Edo
Narcoossee’s
We haven’t really planned out a lot of our quick service meals, we will just go with the flow. We also plan to spend one of our Epcot days going round the World Showcase in 180 snacks- as it is the food and wine festival so would be rude not to!
We plan to eat off site a few times and we plan on visiting:
The Melting Pot
Bubba Gumps
The Cheesecake Factory

We were able to get Fast Pass selections for all our chosen rides, including those which is more sort after such as: Seven dwarfs mine train, Anna and Elsa, Fantasmic, and Wishes.
Kim wasn’t into the planning aspect (except organising the essentials such as ESTA and travel insurance) but over the last few hundred days I was able to wear her down and now even she has got more into organising the finer (more fun) points of the trip.

I used the DIBB planner to create our itinerary for the trip and as well as visiting all the Disney Parks and Downtown Disney we also have tickets for Mickeys not So scary, La Nouba, Discovery Cove, Seaworld, and we plan on having two days at Universal Studios/IOA – I’m a Harry Potter geek and loved the studio tour at Watford.
We are also going to go to the premium outlet on International Drive, and The Mall of Millennia so that Kim can get her shopping fix!

Obviously as this is my first Florida trip, this is also my first trip report so I hope you all enjoy it! As I said I love taking photos so I’m sure I will have plenty to share with you here when creating my reports!
Until next time x

INDEX
Disney Documents
Itinerary

[dorsetmutley]

I have just looked at your Dibb vacation planner, looks good. Will enjoy reading your report.

[abiknox]

Sounds like a great trip, we get to Disney the day you leave. Great ADR choices! I also really fancy the melting pot but we haven;t ever got round to going there

Great that you have DC & La Nuba tickets, two of my faves

[Tashaglobal]

It's under a month until we leave for orlando, and today we received that magic disney envelope, with our travel documents, a little book of magic, a book of vouchers and luggage tags. I'm a big toy story fan so have opted to have the Woody and Buzz tags and Kim is going to have the Anna/Elsa and Daisy.
Receiving this today has made the trip seem so much more real, and I'm so excited!

Also I know a lot of people have asked on other threads about the $200 gift card. This came included with our documents today as a paper voucher which we have to take to World of Disney at DTD between 10am-10 pm at any point during the holiday, along with photo ID to exchange for the gift card.

[Tashaglobal]

Originally Posted by dorsetmutley

I have just looked at your Dibb vacation planner, looks good. Will enjoy reading your report.

See more...

Thank you! I keep tweeking the planner as the hours have changed a bit and with Blizzard Beach closing earlier.

Originally Posted by abiknox

Sounds like a great trip, we get to Disney the day you leave. Great ADR choices! I also really fancy the melting pot but we haven;t ever got round to going there

Great that you have DC & La Nuba tickets, two of my faves

See more...

Thank you! I'm really looking forward to all the food! I have to admit that it was Kim's choice to go the The Melting Pot but having looked at the food and menu online it looks so good, and it's something a bit different.

We are particularly looking forward to DC and LA Nouba. I have to admit I'm a bit nervous to do the dolphin swim- I'm a bit nervous in the water at times but I'm sure I'll be fine on the day!

[DisneyLass]

Sounds like you will be busy! I always feel a little jealous of those who have DDP...so many nice restaurants to try in Disney
We're DVC so don't get DDP unless pay for it & not worth it IMO
Seen Cirque twice...ace!

Hope you have a great trip x

[Tashaglobal]

Originally Posted by DisneyLass

Sounds like you will be busy! I always feel a little jealous of those who have DDP...so many nice restaurants to try in Disney
We're DVC so don't get DDP unless pay for it & not worth it IMO
Seen Cirque twice...ace!

Hope you have a great trip x

See more...

Thank you! I agree that the DDP is giving us a great opportunity to try all the different restaurants.
TBH i think if you are paying oop there can be better value for money and more variety off site.

[Tashaglobal]

Itinerary

This is the itinerary we have put together for the trip, I will be interested to see how well we stick to it, how many last minute changes will be made and if we managed to get the things on our must do list checked off.


25/09/15 – Pre travel day
Evening before flight stay in premier inn Gatwick north terminal, and do evening check in of bags with BA. Added Parking option to hotel stay. Have dinner or takeaway at hotel, to be decided on the day.

26/09/15 - Travel Day
With the flight time at 13:55, some duty free shopping and a boots meal deal for the plane are on the cards- Kim doesn’t really like the food on the plane. I have got some vouchers from MyGatwick for some free wifi, and money off at a few stores, these are saved in my passbook on my iphone so no need for any extra paper. Arrive into MCO with BA at 18:05 collect bags and head to the Disney Magical Express. Check into Coronado Springs Resort and go back to the room, unpack and relax maybe head to the pepper market and grab a bite to eat. Then sleep.

27/09/15 - Magic Kingdom
This is the day I have been allowed full control over, so its likely to be a bit over the top. The details are currently planned down to the minute We have breakfast pre opening at BOG 08:00 so plan to get a few pictures of main street first. I have pre ordered the Croissant Doughnut and Kim the Open-Faced Bacon and Egg Sandwich. Lunch is also at BOG at 13:00 did I mention Kim REALLY likes beauty and the beast! For lunch I’ve pre ordered the Braised Pork (Coq Au Vin Style) and Kim has opted for the Carved Turkey Sandwich. Throughout the day we have fastpasses booked for Dumbo, Cinderella and Rapunzel m&g, and Mickey Mouse m&g- with plans to see dream along with Mickey, the festival of fantasy parade and Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Street Party. We have a dinner booked at ‘Ohana and then just a relaxing evening planned.

28/09/15 – Discovery Cove
We have tickets for discovery cove booked, the plan is to get up early and try and get morning dolphin swim, any tips on doing this would be really helpful we plan on spending the day into the afternoon here but if we want to stay until closing we will, if not the plan is to head to downtown Disney to pick up our gift card and maybe have a look around a few shops. We have an evening ADR booked at Chef Mickeys.

29/09/15 – Hollywood Studios
It is likely we will have breakfast at the studios at the writers stop, I want the try the carrot cake cookie, you might have noticed now that I have a sweet tooth. We have fastpasses booked for TOT, first time in forever frozen sing-a-long celebration, and fantasmic. Our ADR is at 50’s Prime Time, I really want to try the PB&J milkshake.

30/09/15 – Epcot
Since we decided on Epcot for this day Disney has added EMH in the morning, we will decide on the night before if we will make it in time for them. We have fastpasses booked for Soarin, spaceship earth and the seas with Nemo and friends. The morning is planned to spend in futureland until world showcase opens. We might skip breakfast today and then have room for more things at the F&W festival, there is lots I want to try here. We have an evening meal booked at Akershus royal banquet hall. Watch illuminations in the evening before heading back to CSR.

1/10/15 – Premium Outlets and MNSSHP
Grab some breakfast at pepper market then some retail therapy at premium outlets, we are going to try and use Uber to get there. I have signed up to a discount booklet and coupons, on their website called VIP Shopper club. I am after a new watch and some Raybans, Kim wants a new Michael Kors bag, to add to the ever growing collection of bags, I’ve been told you can never have enough. We have fasspasses booked in magic kingdom for before the MNSSHP starts at Peter Pan and SDMT. An ADR at Tony’s Tony Square, at 16:00. we want to meet the seven dwarfs so will queue for that after our ADR, I also want to add to my pin badge collection with a party pin. I think Kim wants to get the Halloween Minnie and Mickey plushes as she got them when she was in Disneyland.

2/10/15 – Blizzard Beach, DTD and La Nouba
We had originally planned to spend the morning at typhoon lagoon this day but Disney changed the refurbishment at BB so we swapped the days, but planning on a lie-in after what I am sure will be a late night at MK the previous night. This may change as we want to visit TL more and may visit there instead. A chilled afternoon back at CSR before an evening at DTD with an ADR at raglan road, then watching the evening La Nouba performance.

3/10/15 – Magic Kingdom
We have a pre opening breakfast at Crystal Palace, and I really want to try the breakfast lasagne. This is going to be a long day so we might head back to CSR to chill about 3, we will see how we feel. MK closes at 23:00 but there are EMH until 01:00 and we (I) wanted to try and spend the whole evening there to get some pictures and go on some rides with limited queues. We have FP’s for all the mountains (Splash, Thunder and Space), and an ADR at BOG, we are both every excited to meet Beast.

4/10/15 – Typhoon Lagoon and Mall of Millennia.
Depending on tiredness we may go to typhoon lagoon, or we may opt for a lie-in before going to mall of millennia. If we do go to TL we (i) want to visit happy landings ice cream for a Sand Pail. The shops we visit will depend on our success at the premium outlets, we definitely want to pop into Tiffanys, Kiehl's and Macys though. Will plan to eat at cheesecake factory, to satisfy Kim’s Reeces Pieces cheesecake craving. In the evening, we will have an early-ish night, but not before trying a cocktail or two in the Rix lounge in our hotel.

5/10/15 - Seaworld and Cinderella’s Royal Table
Today we plan on using Uber again, if the first trip is successful to go to Seaworld. Our admission here is included in the price of our trip to Discovery Cove. I have to admit to being a bit sucked into all the Blackfish controversy and still don’t know I feel 100% comfortable with visiting, but Kim has fond childhood memories from visiting here and so wanted to take a look. We plan on doing some of the rides as well as watching the Orca and the dolphin show. In the evening we are back to the Magic Kingdom for our ADR at CRT. We have an anna and Elsa fast pass booked for just before this. We have a late ADR time to try and watch ‘Wishes’ from inside the castle.

6/10/15 - Universal Studios and Citywalk
Today we plan on spending the whole day at Universal, obviously visiting TWWOHP- this is the main attraction for me and I’m excited to try the Butter beer as I have read that its even better than the Harry Potter studio tour over here in the UK. Other rides we want to do include ET, The Simpsons, MIB, The Mummy, Shrek, and Hollywood rip ride rockit.
In the evening we will head to Bubba Gumps making the most of our Landry’s card and birthday discount!

7/10/15 - Island of Adventure and The Melting Pot
Today we head back over to Universal this time taking in IOA. As per the previous day the main attraction for me here is TWWOHP, but we will also try and do Spider man, Rip saw falls, and Jurassic park. We were looking forward to the Hulk- until we found out it was closed! After this we will have dinner in the Melting Pot, I think this is one of the meals Kim is looking forward to the most, she decided we were going here after randomly coming across pictures from Instagram- it looks so good!

8/10/15- Animal Kingdom, and Epcot
Today we are having breakfast at Tusker house, we then plan on spending the day at Animal Kingdom. We have fast passes for Expedition Everest, Kali river rapids and Adventurers outpost. We plan on doing the safari first after breakfast, so did not book a FP. In the evening we will head over to Epcot and world showcase, to try and visit any places we might of missed on the first trip. We are having dinner at Teppan Edo, and plan to finish off by watching ‘Illuminations’ again.

9/10/15- Last Full Day
Today is our last full day at Disney (sob) and we don’t really have any solid plans. We will probably visit whichever park we have enjoyed the most, or where we still have unfinished business, and start panic buying any presents to take home that we may have forgotten! We have an evening ADR at Narcoossee’s, as we wanted to end the holiday with a nice treat!

10/10/15- Coming Home
Today we have some time in the morning before we will have to leave for the airport.
We may go to downtown Disney, I think Kim is fairly keen to buy something at the Earl of sandwich to take on the plane. Our flight back is at 17:35 US time, so I guess we will be leaving the resort around midday. We then land back in the UK the following day at 6:55am- the joy of time zones!