COMPLETE - Tuck your elbows in - a September / October trip report

[lumosq102]

Welcome to my first trip report, and my tenth trip to Orlando.


You may or may not have stumbled upon my brief PTR – here, but to recap, our cast:



Me, Kirsty W. Unrepentant Disney fan and obsessive planner. Photopass photographers just love to make me twirl.

A little backstory.

As mentioned above, this is my tenth trip to Orlando. I was introduced as an adult by my dear best friend who, growing up going to Disneyland in Anaheim, is made up of at least 20% pixie dust. We wanted a cheap holiday to somewhere to switch off from the real world for a bit and neither of us are fans of the traditional beach holiday. We managed to get a cheap 10 day trip to Orlando, return flights with Virgin, hotel on iDrive, for £700. Total, not each. We lovingly named the hotel the CSI motel it was so classy. Anyway… down the rabbit hole we went. I thought I would like Universal best, (for the thrill rides. After all, Disney was for kids right?) then we went to Animal Kingdom & it was love at first sight.

We only had 1 day at each WDW park and our 1 and only day at Magic Kingdom day was the day before Thanksgiving. It was packed & we had to leave early as R came down with a migraine whilst in line for the Jungle Cruise. I still remember being on the ferry back to TTC, looking at that castle and just wishing that I could see it all again some day. Wishes sometimes do come true.

These days I’m never happier than hanging out on Main Street & watching the parade. Still love Animal Kingdom an unnecessary amount and love those thrill rides, but the thrills may have been surpassed by the storytelling of a good dark ride.



My travel companion & dearest friend, Kirsty R. Pixie dust showing.

This is her 11th trip to Orlando, and heaven-knows-how-many-th trip to a Disney park. She tolerates my enthusiasm for late nights and early mornings, and endless photo taking. R is our culinary director and planner of all things food – a large task for most trips, but especially this one since it coincides with the Food and Wine festival. R loves Animal Kingdom best, the beds at Portafino Bay hotel & Flight of Passage – but more on that later.

A quick summary of the trip – we would be flying with Virgin in Premium Economy & staying at 2 DVC resorts & 1 Universal resorts over 16 nights. There is lots to be seen and event more to be done – so lets get to it!

PTR - Food, Wine & Halloween - a September / October PTR
Day 0 & Day 1 - travel to Orlando & DAKventures
Day 2 - Magic and classics
Day 3 - Animal magic
Day 4 - its all Universal
Day 5 - dragons & lounging
Day 6 - to the Bay!
Day 7 - Home is where the Happily Ever After is
Day 8 - Food & wine time
Day 9 - food glorious food
Day 10 - Undiscovered wilderness
Day 11 - Happy birthday Epcot!
Day 12 - going wild
Day 13 - Sip n Strolling through Epcot
Day 14 - Festival of Happily Ever After
Day 15 - Boo to you times two
Day 16 - Baby giraffe and broken down pirate ships
Day 17 - one more Magic Kingdom day

[lumosq102]

So, its taken an embarrassingly long time, but I have updated with day 2 - our first full day. We have our next trip coming up in 5 months which gives me a finite deadline to finish another 15 days!

[lumosq102]

Well, that was a bit quicker! Day three is now up, and a gentle warning - its very picture heavy!

[lumosq102]

Day 4 is up - time to head over to Universal...

[lumosq102]

Day 5 is now up, with even more potter pictures

[firsttimedream]

Following😊

[lumosq102]

Originally Posted by firsttimedream

Following😊

See more...

Thank you

Day 6 and 7 are now up

[lumosq102]

Day 8 is now up

[lumosq102]

It took a little while but day 9 is finally here. I now need to get a wiggle on as we have 7 days to go and its just 62 days until we head back!

[lumosq102]

Happy bank holiday all! Hope you're all enjoying this glorious weather. Day 10 is now up