Man V Disney 4 Weeks of Florida. Lows, Highs and Next Time

[Man v Disney]

Now that we are back and we have had all of 24 hours to digest our trip, we wanted to do our highs and lows, as well as adding in things we know we will do if (when) we go next!

I'll start with the lows to end on a high as they say, but first want to say there really aren't many. We have really scraped the bottom of the barrel but if we had to choose, these were our lows.

Lows

Car hire- Budget queues. This has made the list as, although the car was amazing and Budget improved at the end of our holiday, those first couple of hours when we were exhausted were just gutting. They would have just added charges on us if we hadn't dug our heels in and it's the last thing we were wanting to do right then.

Three Broomsticks food at Islands of Adventure. Maybe the only truly disappointing meal, only for Han though, of the whole trip.

Traffic Lights. Eliana has asked us to put this in as she got so frustrated with waiting at traffic lights. They take ages to change and they're literally every hundred meters. Didn't bother the rest of us too much though.

Seaworld and Universal. These made it on the list as, in the context of us having done so many parks, these were just not as good. I doubt if we would do Seaworld again and Universal is the poor relation to Islands. Without the Harry Potter area, there wouldn't be much although they are just building a Fast and Furious ride which may turn the tide a bit.

Highs (So, so many of these but we have chosen just a few&#128516

Trip Reporting. Firstly one of our biggest Highs has been doing this trip report. We have read other people's and loved them but never imagined we would do our own. When we are back at home life is so busy we couldn't picture spending an evening doing this...we didn't even realise we could write in a way others would want to read. Now we are back at home the value of it is even higher to us. It has kept the memories alive for us better than just some photos and souvenirs. We are so pleased people have enjoyed reading, but having it here for us to remind us forever of our holiday is just amazing. Well worth the time!

Split Stay. One of the best things for us was doing our split stay between Saratoga Springs and our villa. If anything, if we came again we would do a slightly shorter stay onsite to get the benefits there but move to a villa quickly...but only if it has a pool which was a must and much used bonus for us. How else could Han have floated on a lilo undisturbed for 3 hours?

Food! Eating out played a huge part of this holiday and we loved it. With the exception of three broomsticks (as above) we didn't really have a bad meal and we had done our research before using the Dibb to refine our choices. Not cooking or making many of our own meals really helped make the holiday truly relaxing.

Drinks. Bottomless drinks everywhere and great choices, not just your standard. We will be disappointed not being able to get raspberry lemonade in restaurants.

Disney. I don't know if we would ever be able to go to Florida and not do Disney. For our family it's just perfect. Enough to to do for days and days with choice for everyone. I know it's expensive but they have service and experience down to a fine art, particularly if you utilise the fastpass system. As well as Magic Kingdom we especially enjoyed Epcot this time with it nearly overtaking as our favourite. We were also pleasantly surprised by Animal Kingdom and it's gone way up in our estimation.

Family time. Four weeks out there spending real quality time together has done us the world of good. It's given us time to relax, recuperate and also re-evaluate who The Clarks are. Life is busy, Han and I are both starting new job roles which will have more expectations on us and this has given us time to fully get away and be with Josiah and Eliana. You can't put a value on it and we are very thankful of this time and don't take the fact we have been able to do it lightly. We also loved having the first two weeks with Chris and Rosemary. Although we try to see them every week, before this holiday we actually hadn't had much chance to see them. We love that the children have this special time with their grandparents and memories for life.

Next Time.

We haven't planned for another holiday yet as budget just doesn't allow it (although it's our 20th wedding anniversary in 2021 so maybe a good enough reason &#128521 but if we were to go again here are just a few things we didn't get round to or definitely want to plan again...

IHOP, Bonefish Grill and Cheesecake Factory. All three of these dropped off our list due to one thing or another but we still want to visit. I hope they're all still there when we get back!

Discovery Cove. No hesitation, it's a must!

Disney Quest. If it's still there we would love a bit more time to explore as Eliana really wasn't feeling well. We've heard its soon to go so I'm glad we got there!

Doing everything we did last time with the possible exception of Seaworld.

So there you have it. Hope you can make use of our experiences if you are planning your own trip, if you've just been reading to see how we have got on then thank you. All the comments have helped us have this great trip! We will keep replying to any comments as best we can!

Josiah and Eliana have both said they would like to write something about the holiday from their perspectives so if you want to see Florida through the eyes of a 9 or 11 year old then it may be worth checking back on the index at a later date. Otherwise, it's goodbye from us.

[Mexy02]

Glad you had a brilliant holiday which I'm sure you will remember for a long time. We also love Disney but seeing other things is good too. Your reports were great and I agree great memories as it becomes a blur after a few days. Nice to look back on
We still haven't done Cheesecake Factory or I hop lol. Thanks for sharing X

[JenD1]

I loved reading your trippie and looked forward to it every morning! Family time... you can't put a price on that can you? Especially when they're young. Thanks so much for sharing.

[Loopylooloo]

Really enjoyed your trip report, and its lovely to hear that you are glad you did it, it makes such nice reading once you are home and in months to come when its cold and dark outside! Welcome home..

[Tink 45]

Really enjoyed your trip report! Glad to know it's been worthwhile for you, I've thought about a trip report for a couple of years now but honestly don't know where to start! We do a holiday journal and have done for years and years!, probably an old fashioned trip report. One of these days I might surprise myself and get one on here! Have fun planning your next trip! X

[dorsetmutley]

Loved your report, you will have many happy memories:

[Smithy78]

Wow that was an epic trip report, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and will be taking tips for our upcoming trip. Thank you for sharing x

[Mel49]

Fantastic Trip Report and have enjoyed reading along - quality family time and fantastic memories and would love to go for 4 weeks as certainly gave you chill out time to mix and match with your busy park days.
Your highs and lows sums it up brilliantly and thanks for taking the time to share it.

[klr15]

I've loved reading your trip report! I will be visiting Orlando for the first time next May so i've enjoyed getting lots of tips from reading about your holiday!

[Jockey]

Fab report ..hope you get to go back soon