Do They Know It's Christmas? Helen&Andy:Nov17. Final Thoughts & What's Next...

[HelenJNT]

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Final thoughts and what’s next for us…

So, I am writing this two months to the day since returning from our 2017 trip. I know it’s taken a while to get this post up but there’s a reason for this...

But more on this later.

The easiest way to kick this off is with the highs and lows I think. I know most people do these when they return, before they start their trip reports in earnest, but I wanted to have some time to think about it.

Highs:
A Wednesday to Wednesday break. It was ridiculous what a positive impact this had on our trip. Previously we have always gone Sat-Sat and whilst I did wonder what it would be like to have two weekends within our trip and whether it would impact on the crowds, we didn’t really notice it. And as I said in the report, psychologically, it felt very different as we had two very short weeks at work either side and we were away spanning over three weeks so it felt like a longer trip all in all. Plus the airports were far quieter than on the weekend. We loved it and have booked Weds-Weds for this year’s trip as well - it’s a good job it did work out well actually, as you know, we booked 2018 before we had even been on 2017.

The quiet park times either side of the Thanksgiving week. It really was a trip of two extremes and I felt we “deserved” the quiet time to compensate for the sheer madness of Thanksgiving week. And do you know what? For the first time ever, we didn’t see one South American tour group during the entire trip…so there’s something to be said for that.

Hollywood Studios. I’m almost pleased this park has a bad rep at the moment as apart from one ridiculously busy day, our best days on this holiday were at DHS. It was beautifully done out for Christmas, and the atmosphere was lovely. As you can tell, we were also big fans of the Baseline Tap, which served to preserve our sanity on more than one occasion. Also – I rode Tower of Terror for the first time and loved it! Wheeee!

Quick Service dining plan. As you know, we bought the QSDP with the saving we got by booking AKL in the free nights deal. We really enjoy not being tied down to meal times and there is such a variety of choice now. We didn’t eat one Disney theme park burger or pizza in our entire fortnight – the food offerings are so much better now. Satuli Canteen, the Polite Pig, Min & Bill’s Dockside Diner (for breakfast) and Blaze Pizza were real stand-outs for us. I just wish they’d bring some of the Disney Springs food quality into the rest of the parks. I know we had a lot of credits left but we love the flexibility of the plan and the fact that the meal costs were locked in, which gave us comfort when the exchange rate was so bad. We never felt we missed out during by not eating at signature restaurants or offsite during this trip.

Charging to the room. What a game changer this turned out to be. We loved being able to track spends on the app without having to constantly count cash or check receipts and then just going to pay it off every few days, so no nasty surprises at the end of the trip.

Wifi. It worked really well for us no matter where we were in the parks. Happy days.

Animal Kingdom. This is probably still our least favourite park (but that sounds unfair as it is still wonderful). We enjoyed Pandora and Flight of Passage and riding Everest at night for the first time is probably one of my outstanding memories from this trip. We were worried about how to kill time in this park but we had some great days there and we also had three fantastic meals – Yak & Yeti, Satuli Canteen and Tusker House. I’m pleased we are over our fear of character meals as I think I am going to book a couple more for this year – just for the buffet food though, you understand, I have no intention of punching poor Mickey on the nose again.

The weather. Andy and I were quite divided on this one as he ultimately decided he preferred it when it was stinking hot and humid. I didn’t. This was a great time of year to go (despite having a couple of wet/grey days and it feeling odd to be in long trousers and jumpers for some of it). I hadn’t realised how the weather impacts on my tolerance levels and I don’t think I would have been anywhere near as accepting or zen about the Thanksgiving crowds had I also been super sweaty, dehydrated and annoyed. OK, so we didn’t get enviable suntans, we were never at the hotel by the pool on the days when it would have been warm enough to swim, and we didn’t get to go to Volcano Bay but I really enjoyed the November climate. There are far fewer rants in this trip report than in my 2016 ones and I think the weather accounts for a lot of why that is.

Not-so-highs

Virgin’s approach – letting everyone off the plane before upstairs. On both flights. As I said, it didn’t bug me too much on the way home, and it was good that our luggage still came off first, but it was a right ball-ache on the way in to Orlando when we were the last two off the plane and caught in a ridiculous queue at immigration. Not a very premium experience. We are flying with BA this year, upstairs again, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens there. Other than that, the flights were on time, the planes were clean, the entertainment worked well and we had no other issues at all. The only reason we are flying BA this year is because they came in a clear £800 cheaper than Virgin.

Be Our Guest. This won’t come as a surprise. Too crowded, noisy and chaotic. The atmosphere there is at complete odds with the décor. I haven’t decided whether we’ll be back this year – I fear we may be, unless the Magic Kingdom ups its breakfast game significantly in the coming months.

Buses. It pains me to say this one as I always think anything relating to the WDW transport system needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. We chose not to have a car, therefore I don’t feel right about complaining about the alternative option as we went into it with our eyes wide open. Sometimes when we timed it right, it was seamless. Other times, well, it wasn’t. Ordinarily I would say it is just sheer luck as to when you pitch up to wait for a bus, but I have to say that we endured longer waits for AKL buses than we have for any of the other resorts we have stayed at. The buses were far busier as well – it wasn’t often that we got a seat, which is why it made it into my notes when we did as it was a bit of a rare thing. We are perfectly able bodied and so not in need of a seat but sometimes it’s just nice, you know?

Crowds. Again, we went into this trip with our eyes wide open and we knew going over Thanksgiving was going to be a bit of a challenge in places. However, we couldn’t move Andy’s birthday, so these were the dates we needed to have. As it was, we were relatively tolerant of the crowds as we had consciously decided to carry on in our own little bubble and not let it impact on us. The only times it really got to us were:
-When we couldn’t get on a bus and we missed the start of EMH, despite getting to the bus stop an hour ahead of park opening (although we were too tight-fisted to just hop in an Uber).
-When we couldn’t get a coffee or any food as the queues at Starbucks or the QS places were just untenable.

We’ve always been earlier in the year (March, May and June) and we thought it was busy then. Well, this was a whole new level. Obviously the headliner rides are always busy regardless but we’d never seen fast passes for an entire park run out by 2pm before, or 90 minute queues for It’s A Small World. We walked just as far but rode much less than we have done on previous trips, which made us quite sad. I have a whole catalogue of rides and attractions that we just didn’t manage to get on at all during this holiday. On the plus side, it did make us slow down and chill out more compared to previous years and we weren’t as physically tired this year – even though we were really getting the miles in, it was all at a slower pace somehow.

I wanted to compare our step and attraction count to our May 2016 trip actually, and here seems as good a place as any:

Park visits: 19 in 2016, 18 in 2017
Rides: 136 in 2016, 106 in 2017
Miles: 104 in 2016, 115 in 2017.

So, we walked 11 more miles and visited one less park this year, and rode 30 fewer attractions this time around. Both years we visited Disney Springs four times. It didn’t feel like we had walked that much more this time around, especially as our hotel room was so near the bus stop, but I guess it just goes to show that by missing 30 rides, we did a lot more wandering about. 30 rides is a lot, isn’t it? No wonder we felt like we had missed out a lot compared to our usual standards.

I actually can’t believe we walked 115 miles in 12 days (we didn’t track either travel day) as on the whole we felt pretty relaxed. That is not the norm for us and it’s no wonder I lost half a stone on this trip – although that could be partly due to the fact that we ate nowhere near enough. I know this and I am sad about it as I lose hours to poring over Disney restaurant and food reviews and gleefully plotting what I want to stuff in my face.

In summary, we had a great trip. Andy’s heart behaved itself, which was great as this is always a nagging concern - although this time it was more at the back of our minds than our previous trip which was impacted quite significantly by his health.

We enjoyed Animal Kingdom Lodge and were excited to have finally ticked off a deluxe resort from the bucket list. As the stats above show, we don’t spend a lot of time in the resort so I don’t know if we necessarily made the most of our stay there. We didn’t have a savannah view and so we couldn’t just see the animals from the room, which was a shame. I feel like we saw all there was to see but also that maybe a fair amount of the resort went undiscovered.

We didn’t eat in Boma or Jiko and we found the Mara to be hard work every single time. We thought the resort itself was beautiful and we were very lucky to have got such a great bargain, as for years it was off the cards to us due to price. I think we acknowledged it as a very lovely place and the staff were exceptional, but to us it never felt quite like home.

I was asked in the comments of our travel day to make sure to include a montage of Andy’s best faces, so, for your entertainment, here it is….For the record, I love all his faces and I’m glad people enjoyed watching us pratting around.

And finally...

Oh and also the Trip Report bingo card…. There were many more and I struggled to whittle it down … what else do you think should be included?

What have we been up to since?

Well, as you know, we ordered a fireplace on the day we got back…

And we have also opened up our home to two new residents. Meet Sophia (the Siamese) and Rocco, AKA The Rock (Blue Oriental). They’ve been with us a week now and seem to be settling in – i.e. ruling the roost. Luckily our other two cats have taken to them relatively well…in that they are completely ignoring them.

The pizza oven has been something of a hit – as you’ll know if you follow me on Instagram. We have messed a fair few pizzas up (not quite Blaze standard yet) but we’ve finally found a dough recipe we quite like and we’ve been having fun on our pizza ventures.

What’s next?

Well, as you know if you made it this far, we are going back in 2018 – this time for MY 40th! I am dying to write about this as there have been quite a few stressful developments but here is not the place – I will save it for my pre-trip report, which I will write once my nails have recovered from hammering the keyboard for this one.

I think 2018 will be our last trip to WDW for a few years. We love it there so much and talk about it every single day but we want to experience other places for the next few years. We’ve agreed that our next trip will be in 2021. However, things can and do change – I remember saying at the end of my 2016 trip report that we wouldn’t be back til 2018 or maybe 2019 and we’ve ended up going in 2017 AND 2018 so let’s face it, what do I know? I do know we want to do a proper all-inclusive summer holiday in 2019 as saving all our annual leave until November (so more or less working for over 11 months straight without a break) was a nightmare. Worth it in the end though!

I want to say thank you as well to everyone who has taken the time to read my report, to engage with me here and on Instagram, and to share in the laughter, the agony and the never-ending tales of strange people in the parks. This report has come in at over 96,000 words and I am always amazed when people take the time to battle through, especially when you’ve got your own ADRs and fast passes to plan, and when there are so many great reports on here to read.

If you’ve learned anything, I hope it’s to buy the peppermint bark from the GF if you’re there at Christmas, not to sit in yellow liquid of undetermined origin, to try not to punch Mickey Mouse in the face, and at all costs to avoid the ham & swiss at Earl of Sandwich.

There will be a trip report from our 2018 visit – it’s only proper to finish off the trilogy, right? Maybe then I’ll make a start on the book. You’ll maybe see it in Waterstones, under my pseudonym of Pee Butt. Or perhaps Pork Chop.

Helen x

EDITED TO ADD - new pre-trip report can now be found here

[Goldia]

For trip report bingo...being stranded the wrong side of a parade when you're trying to get to a FP, or, standing in the front of a shop waiting for the rain to let up, or, doing the fast walk to catch a bus/FP/ADR, or, thinking you've had a lazy start to the day when you're leaving the hotel room at 9am...only in Florida! I could go on forever and that would be rather dull.

Some fab highs, I loved looking at the photos of you both. My favourite is the one in front of tower of terror where it looks like you are punching yourself in the face. If I remember correctly you said that was you pretending to be scared, it still looks like you're a bit cross with yourself to me.

Interesting about the stats showing less attractions this time around, but distance covered being slightly more. As you said it's all part of the compromise isn't it? We only ever go in the school summer holidays, it would be utterly ridiculous for us to moan that it's busy and hot...

Well, I'm sad that this is over. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your report. Have fun planning your next trip and I will look forward to the conclusion of the trilogy.

[redspottyowl]

Woohoo, well done Helen! Loved this report, we go this year the same ish time as you so we may bump into you as we have been moved to the Yacht Club

[MrsSilverStar]

I'm thrilled that the montage of Andy's Many Faces made it in here
I'm reading at work (the one day I'm here this week before swanning off to DLP on Wednesday, wahoo!), and had to come up with a work-appropriate reason for why I was cackling when I got to the lantern one brilliant.

I love a proper round up with stats and sage advice about avoiding yellow puddles, thank you so much for slogging through this for us all. Looking forward to the 2018 installment.

[Unexpectedpenny]

Andy’s face photo montage is brilliant! I think my favourite one is you looking like you’re punching yourself in front of TOT though

Oh my your new cats are beautiful 😍

Thank you for writing your report it’s been a wonderful read as usual.

[KittyBlackDog]

😆 what a great round up and final report for your 2017 trippie!

I’ve loved reading everyday and your fab take on all that a Disney holiday entails 😂

Love the montage at the end 😉

Thanks again for sharing it 👍🏻

[beth21]

Well done and thank you for all the hard work in writing a TR really enjoyed the read

[fudgie]

Your trip reports are one of the highlights of the dibb so thank you for all the time and effort you put in to them.

Your two new residents are just the most beautiful looking cats and I love that your other two are ignoring them - cats with attitude are just the best!

Looking forward to reading all about your next trip

[emmabanana]

Thanks for writing the trip report, I really enjoy your style of writing.
Your new cats are lovely. 😍

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Oh what a perfect conclusion to a blooming brilliant trip report *massive round of applause*

As you well know, I have loved reading along with this trip and I particularly enjoyed the review of your stats compared to last year... the research geek in me can't resist a good stat!

I am so excited for the PTR for this year's trip, I can already predict this is going to be a particularly epic onsite stay for you guys

Oh an I totally loved the montage of the various faces of Andy (the Haunted Mansion carol singing still gets my vote as photo of the trip). This also further cements that A needs his own IG account. Pronto. #getAonIG

Thanks for taking the time to write this, I know what a labour of love they are but without a doubt it was worth all those hours of hard work!