♫ Our 14 days of Christmas. ♫-day 1 -WWOHP & US/IOA.

[Guest]

Cast-

Vicky(moi)- aged 35, loves Disney & being away on vacation with my family .
Chris (dh)- aged 42, secret Disney lover, loves sunshine, hates spending money!
Megan(dd)- aged 14, outgoing friendly teen, absolute coater & ride fanatic, loves spending OUR $$$!
Toby(ds)- aged 8- bubbley little boy, loves LEGO,Little Big Planet & HP, nerf gun addict!

15th Dec 2010.

I seemed to wake-up really early, but I really didn’t want too! Then Tobes come through to our room and asked if he could start his Lego building! With a struggle I got out of bed, my head was pounding and I could feel a cold coming on, I just put this down to the air-con on the plane!

Then Chris woke-up as well and got up so we could get ready for our day at WWOHP.

I don’t recall the exact time but it must of been very early as Tobes seems to be well sorted with his Lego building. (It was a HP set).



Being watched very closely by his new friend.



We had coffees and the kids had Froot Loops. Even though we live where we can buy Froot Loops I still only let the kids have them when we go on vacation, I know...I am a mean mum!

Anyways breakfast/ showers and many lego bricks later we are out of the door.

Its a gloriously beautiful day but its bloomin chilly. We hope as the day goes on it will get warmer.



After Chris had scraped the ice of the windscreen of our car we are on our way.

The journey was uneventful and we arrived at US with everyone else in the state of Orlando! Lol

We paid the extra $6 to upgrade to closer parking, might as well. Its not that we’re lazy or anything but I know this day is going to be full-on, trying to do most rides in both parks on the same day.

We stopped at will-call to collect our tickets we won. One day/ 2 park tickets with express pass.



And then our mad dash began!

Now, it was foolish really as everyone and their mothers were heading to WWOHP so it made no difference how fast we walked.
We made our way through Whosville (I think thats the name), I loved the ‘Who’ people and really wanted Tobes to have his pic taken with them but he was having none of it. One of his fave films is ‘Horton hears a Who’.



WWOHP was rammed full, from the entrance onwards. Everyone kind of shuffled along , I guess like us people were stoping to take pictures.



The kids loved it, especially Tobes.







We made our way to FJ and the queue was showing a wait time of 40 mins. The wait seemed to take forever and then once we were inside Hogwarts we just walked along at a mad pace. I made sure to stop and get some pics , I especially loved the ‘Great Hall’.

Once seated Tobes started getting nervous but I couldn’t really see around the corner of my chair to talk to him!I just told him to cloe his eyes at any bits he didn’t like but I’m sure he would love this ride.



The ride was great but I really did have to close my eyes at all the flying parts.

Whoa, my tummy didn’t like those bits!

Everyone enjoyed the ride and we went into the shop afterwards.

It was madness, no-one could look at merchandise as everyone was trying to line-up somewhere to pay! Chris got totally fed-up and went to the Hippogriff with Meg & Tobes.This gave me a chance to sneak in some xmas pressies whilst the kids were’nt about.



The kids had ridden the Hippogriff twice by the time I got out of the shop!

Tobes was desperate to go into Olivanders so whilst we lined-up Megan & Chris went to The Duelling Dragons together.

I dosed myself up with advil as I felt awful and didn’t want to put a downer on the day.

We lined up for an hour but it was fun.

Chris and Megan came back as we queued-up for the last 10 mins and they were hyped from riding the dragons. Megan had never been on them before but since our visit last Oct she was addited to all coasters.

Eventually we were let in and gather around the counter. Megan, Tobes & I shuffled over to the far side as everyone else hovered in the front of the counter. Olivander appeared and started looking over the crowd.

Then my heart pounded as he looked at me, came towards Tobes and then asked MEGAN to follow him!

Megan being measured for her wand!



Tobes was beaming, he loved watching Megan doing her ‘magic’ and the stuff that happened in the shop( no spoilers). Megan just looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her up and I have never seen her be so quiet.

Megan & her wand.



Wands purchased we left Olivanders and went into Three Broomsticks for lunch.

The food was ok but having to purchase your food before finding a table was a pain. We were fortunate enough to get a table pretty soon but we saw some people waiting with their food for 5-10mins before getting seated, this I didn’t like.We also had table-cleaners hovering around us and not very subtley either!

We had been in WWOHP for what seemed like hours and had looked around most stuff and as we had 4 day tickets as well we decided to go over to US to make the most of our express passes.

In summary I think and maybe now US realise how much more bigger WWOHP should be. I don’t understand why they didn’t get rid of more of the older themed areas that surround it.

The shops were stupidly small. The candy store/joke shop had a line of over 30 mins to purchase items, we left. I know there are plans to expand the area so I look forward to seeing that.


By now the sun was really out but I was still froze.




When we got to US Chris & Megan headed to The Hulk, whilst Tobes & I went to meet Spongebob.


I was disappointed with SB lack of interaction, he just stood there!



We wandered around , stopping for a hot chocolate in the xmas market and taking some pics. Chris & Megan went to do Rip-Ride Rockit.

At this point I was flagging , feeling very poorly so Tobes & I sat down on the kerb ready for the Macys Parade.

There seemed to be a lacking in balloons compared to previous years, well I think so anyways.




Now we didn’t do all ‘non-essential’ rides as we were coming back again. Chris just wanted to use the express passes for the coasters which made sense(then).

Everyone rode The Simpsons apart from me. I sat and people watched and when they returned they had all loved it!

We were all flagging now, I’m sure we did more rides but I can’t remember now.




We decided to go and get some supper and as we had never tried Bubba Gumps we headed there.

The first movie on our first date was Forrest Gump.

We all loved this restaurant, the multi-server idea is a fantastic one.

Chris Gump!


Chris- all American Burger & fries., strawberry shortcake
Me- Pear & Berry salad. Key-lime pie.
Megan- all American burger & fries. Choc-chip cookie sundae.
Tobes- cheese pizza. Kids sundae.

It was delicious and we enjoyed every bit of it. Although I ended-up taking my dessert to go as Chris pud was sooo big we shared that.

We then headed home. It was dark and bitterly cold and we were worn out.

Hopefully tomorrow I will feel abit more better than today as we have MVMCP!

Thanks for reading. x

[Guest]

Seems like you had a great day, except for not feeling too good. Hope it didn't impact on you too much

[LDISNEYFOX]

Another great day. I hope when I read your next day you are feeling better!

[Tartan Tigger]

Sounds like a great day. Hope you're feeling better tomorrow.

[MrsGFareham]

Sounds like a great day, apart from being a little under the weather. IOA is my favourite park and that was even before WWOHP! can't wait till May to see it x

[Helen0705]

Another great day - hope you soon started to feel better.
Must try Bubba Gumps next time we are out.

[summersun]

great report

[Milner]

Great first day and fantastic photos.

[cdavenport]

Great reports, keep them coming. Just love being there at Christmas.
I great to see that even though you, like us have emigrated to Canada the love for Disney/Florida never goes away!

[shirley]

Poor you shame the temp isnt so good.