First time Floribobs (The Irma Remix) - September 2017 - Highs & Lows

[Cazzius]

The Index is HERE.

The Cast

Chris - the BF
Age - 32
Still Disney Undecided

Caz (me)
Age 30-mumble
Still Disney Dreaming

We have reached the end!

I feel a bit like I’m at the BAFTAs, as first of all I would like to thank everyone who has read my trip report and commented. When it was tempting to give up, it was so encouraging to know you were reading along and appreciating my rambling. Thank you!

Spoilers below if you haven’t read the rest of the report.

Overall, we had a great time on our Floribobs It wasn’t the holiday I originally planned, one last time, thanks Irma ! I still think we would have enjoyed Animal Kingdom Lodge, and it would have been great to have the dining plan, but I think we made the best of a bad situation and still had a magical trip. However the remix meant that we stayed at the Dolphin which wasn’t even really on my radar before and we really liked it. We loved the Crescent Lake area, the Friendship Boats and the closeness to Epcot, Hollywood Studios, the Boardwalk, how pretty and convenient the area was.

I know some people dismiss the Swolphin as it isn’t a Disney themed hotel and it hosts lot of conventions but this worked for us. When we stayed the Cracker Barrel Managers were having a conference, we found it gave the hotel had a more grown up atmosphere, like when we returned at the end of the day the bar areas were quite buzzy with people who had been conventioneering all day. I know this might not be for everyone, and I understand why people might want a more themed hotel – particularly if they have children – but as 2 adults, Swolphin was a good fit for us.

I don’t want to include all the rescheduling and re-planning in the Lows as it happened before the holiday and no one had any control of it – well, maybe Disney could have honored our booking and Virgin could have realised that Animal Kingdom Lodge does not equal All Stars as a replacement! Missing out on the Dining Plan due to rearrangement of our holiday was a shame. I had made plans and ADRs based around having the free DDP. We chose to try and recreate our original plan as much of possible and paid for meals, but it would have been nice to have the free dining that I counted on. We both like appetizers and aren’t big dessert eaters though… so maybe another blessing in disguise as we could order what we wanted.

Tater tots... yummmm.

We also missed the few nights we had planned in Tampa, enjoying the beach, visiting breweries and watching baseball. This was planned to miss the busy weekend at Disney, which we still sort of managed to do by only doing a park first thing Saturday morning for a Flight of Passage FP+ and on the Sunday evening for Disneybounding and dinner.

Anyway, here we go with best bits, highs and lows…

Chris’ Best Bits

Restaurant – House of Blues at Disney Springs
Food & Wine Snacks – Piggy Wings: Roasted Pork Wings with Korean BBQ Sauce and Sesame Seeds (Flavours from Fire), Wasabi Shumai Steamed Pork Dumplings (Japan)
Disney Ride – Soarin’
Universal Ride – Jurassic Park: The Ride
Other favourites – NBC Grill & Brew (Universal CityWalk), Craft Beer flights at Food & Wine, air conditioning

Caz’s Best Bits

Restaurant – San Angel Inn Restaurante (Mexico) and House of Blues. Honourable mention to Blaze Pizza (Disney Springs)
Food & Wine Snack – Păo de Queijo: Brazilian Cheese Bread (Brazil), Jamaican Beef Patty with Mango Salsa (Islands of the Caribbean)
Disney Ride – Expedition Everest
Universal Ride – Revenge Of The Mummy (Sorry, Harry Potter)
Other favourites – Happily Ever After, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

The Lows

• The heat/humidity – I love it but it was too much for Chris. In future we would visit later or earlier in the year. He really suffered and I did feel bad that I hadn’t considered how hot it could be when I booked.

• Being a scaredy cat – for some reason, even though I have ridden similar coasters in the UK, I just couldn’t pluck up the courage to ride Rip, Ride RockIt or The Hulk.

• ‘Ohana – this was not a good meal for us and the service was terrible. I have since received an apology and refund from Disney for the meal, but it still leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth (pun intended) as it was the meal I was most looking forward to

• Animal Kingdom – We fully expected this park to be our favourite and we ended up liking it least. It was hot, and we found the layout kind of confusing, you had to walk super far to get anywhere and theming is great but there seemed to be a real shortage of benches and shade.

• Flight of Passage – I couldn’t ride this. The CM couldn’t get the leg restraints to lock. Wasted a FastPass and had to sit in the Room of Shame hearing others leaving saying how good it was. Chris (bless him) assured me that it wasn’t “all that” and that he preferred Soarin’. Top Boyfriend Marks for that.

• Other guests – I know you’ve paid thousands for the holiday of a lifetime… but so have the majority of other people in the park. Be a nice, considerate human, not a selfish, inconsiderate git. You’re in The Happiest Place On Earth, act like it. To everyone.

The Highs

• The Dolphin – As mentioned above, not our first choice this time, but could be in future. Great location, quality hotel and often less than half the price of other Crescent Lake resorts (plus Starwood points, I love me some points). They even do a character breakfast.

• Food & Wine Festival – Really enjoyed wandering the lake and grazing our way around the world. We put money on a mini Food & Wine gift card that came on a wristband that you just swipe at each booth. So many yummy treats to sample, we would want to visit during an Epcot festival again – I like the look of Flower & Garden and Festival of the Arts too.

• MNSSHP – No regrets spending the extra for this hard ticket event. No queues for rides, bags of candy, Big Thunder Mountain in the dark and special fireworks. We couldn’t help it being on the second day of our trip, but I think I’d save it until we were more settled into the timezone in future. It was great when cast members got excited about our costumes too – totally worth dressing up

• Disneybounding – This was fun, Chris even got really into it, tracking down the perfect t-shirt and yellow shirt to complete his outfit. It was really cool to get spotted as Wall-E and Eve, and I loved my custom ears from OctostacheCrafts on Etsy.

• Fireworks – Almost every night! What more can I say. Loved it

• Character meets – we had some great interactions, stand out being Goofy making fun of Chris and then scolding him for not being engaged to me, Hahaha!

• Rides – We enjoyed everything we rode. Even Tower of Terror that I was initially scared of. Introducing Chris to the Disney classic rides was excellent, including him leaving Space Mountain sounding a bit shellshocked saying “I didn’t know it would all be in the dark” and the look on his face when our pirate ship ‘took off’ on Peter Pan’s Flight (then he looked up and spoilt it). Our ride photo from Expedition Everest is still of my favourites.

• Universal – I wasn’t sure what to expect from Universal and was miffed their tickets were so expensive when most reports agreed it could be done in 2 days. However, I loved the Harry Potter areas which were brilliantly themed, and we both enjoyed the water rides – Jurassic Park was Chris’ favourite ride there. Personally, I was also super excited to fit onto the Harry Potter rides as I was worried about it, particularly after my FoP trauma.

Final Thoughts

We had a great holiday. We didn’t make one rope drop… but we made last orders more than once. We park hopped, we snacked around the world, we cast spells, we hugged characters, we got soaked and watched so many fireworks.

So soaked!

It wasn’t all blue skies and sunshine, we had a few silly spats, on separate occasions we both felt a bit ill and I never found the Reef flip flops that I was searching for. Some meals were pleasant surprises and others were serious disappointments.
Chris admits he had a good time, that Disney is a “magical place” and he did agree to go back – particularly after seeing the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge model in One Man’s Dream. However, he did say that he didn’t think it would be a good idea to go back every year as then it wouldn’t be as special (booooo!).

If we headed to Florida again, I would go later in the year to hopefully have slightly cooler weather, I would do a hard ticket Magic Kingdom event as it is worth it to us to have the shorter queues and special entertainment. I would like to try a trip with the dining plan, and I would upgrade to premium economy for the way back for the extra luggage allowance!

Verdict = Our first Floribobs, were a wonderful, magical, supercalifragilistic trip!

What’s next?

The original plan was to book for 2019 when free dining was released. We both wanted to return to Crescent Lake, and while Chris fancied The Boardwalk, that clown in the pool made it a big no from me. I have booked the Yacht Club for late October 2019, with the free Disney Dining Plan. The fact that rooms had balconies (or terraces) really appealed to me and I think Chris will like the nautical theming. My plan is 6 nights at the Yacht Club, followed by a weekend at the beach for 3 nights, then 5 nights back at The Swolphin. This makes 14 nights in total, we should get the end of Food & Wine if the dates are similar to 2017 and 2018, hopefully Galaxy’s Edge will be open and we should be able to get a Halloween or Christmas party in too. Hurrah!

During the report I mentioned my Aunt, who was super helpful in our planning. She used to visit Florida every year and has day tickets remaining on old Hopper passes. She’s quite keen to use these extra days and has mentioned returning to Orlando on holiday in early November 2018. She has a friend who lives in the US, who would meet her in Orlando, but she also casually mentioned to me that she might book 3 bedroom accommodation… and that we would be welcome to join them!
Nothing is booked yet, and Chris maintains it won’t be as magical if we return every year… but I am tempted!
It would be fun yo go with her as we went with her when I was 11 and had a great time.

Whatever happens, deposit is paid with Disney and 2019 is on the calendar.

Thanks again to all the wonderful Dibbers who read, commented and joined us on our First Time Floribobs!

[MrsSilverStar]

what a lovely round up - so glad you both loved it and are keen to go back! We'll be there at the same time next year! You've got to take your aunt up on her awesome offer...maybe go without Chris if he doesn't want to do it every year.

Hope your next trip has no hurricane drama and is even better - thanks for carrying on with the report, really enjoyed it.

[Mrs Valentine]

All sounds fab. Glad you had a fab time.

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

what a lovely round up - so glad you both loved it and are keen to go back! We'll be there at the same time next year! You've got to take your aunt up on her awesome offer...maybe go without Chris if he doesn't want to do it every year.

Hope your next trip has no hurricane drama and is even better - thanks for carrying on with the report, really enjoyed it.

See more...

I think I will take her up on her offer if it comes to fruition - too good to bass up and we'd have a great time.
I'm pretty sure if I made my decision and told Chris I was going he'd decide to come too

I'm going to read your DLP report next, as their dining plan/restaurant set up flummoxes me, but I'd love to go back now they've made everything pretty for the anniversary.

Thanks again for reading and commenting!

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by Mrs Valentine

All sounds fab. Glad you had a fab time.

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Thanks so much.
We did have a fabulous time, and I am sure we will be heading back

[Goldia]

Reading through your highs and lows is fab and makes me realise how much you made this your own holiday and did what you both enjoyed and wanted to do...I know a couple of times I might have bemoaned the seemingly slow starts to the day as it feels like a 'waste' of quality park time to not be there at rope drop. However, you made it to fireworks more times than we ever do as of course with our early starts we're often shattered by 9pm! So, I think you did well to recognise you both enjoyed the relaxation in the morning and this meant you were able to keep going until later.

Your next holiday (2019, not the bonus Aunt trip) sounds like it will be fab. You will definitely get good use out of the packing cubes with your 3 hotels!

Thanks so much for sharing your holiday you know I've loved reading all about it .

[Gill H]

What a lovely ending to the story.

As you know, we thoroughly recommend early November. We are not fans of heat either. Most days were 22-25 with one day being 29 (which we really struggled with) but there were a couple of evenings with bitterly cold wind, so we did need our sweatshirts.

We got to do MVMCP (twice last time in fact!) and Food & Wine too.

Looking forward to hearing whether you end up with one countdown or two!

[Joosebug1987]

Hello

I've read your trip report from start to finish and have really enjoyed it. I haven't commented along as I'm too impatient and rush to the next day instead which is a sure fire sign of a great read!

Thanks so much for writing and sharing your trip with us it has massively made me want to book to go back!

Thanks again xx

[collybird]

I’m a bit of a Swan and Dolphin hater, I just wish they weren’t so ugly to look at! We have been inside the Dolphin, and it is very nice but I am one of those annoying Disney purists. We will make it back sometime for the character breakfast as our list of places still to eat in Disney shrinks by the year.

I am still annoyed on your behalf that Disney couldn’t help you in the rescheduling of your trip, do you know if they honoured Free Dining books for those who booked through Disney?

You’ve inspired us to try House of Blues again, we didn’t particularly enjoy it a few years ago but we’re going to give it another bash as the menu has a nice split of ‘real’ and junk food. It is so frustrating waiting for them to open up the ADRs to Disney though, I am needlessly stressed about this.

Universal tickets really are expensive these days, perhaps I am judging them too harshly (as aforementioned Disney purist). In 2013 we did both parks in one day with Ł99 14-day 2-park tickets, when Diagon Alley opened I figured maybe we would go back again to see it but the prices have shot up (I know, I know, supply and demand), but when we’re only going to be visiting for a day, I can’t justify the cost.

Thrilled to see your plans for next year! Late October is a great time, our preferred time to be honest, we have been lucky enough to do MNSSHP and MVMCP in the same trip once (these days the dates between one ending and the other starting seem to have been stretched a little).

Great write up Caz, thank you once again for sharing, your positive puts a moaning Minnie like me to shame.

P.S. I hope you make it back this year, tell Chris I am very sorry but he is wrong about it being less magical going back every year.

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Reading through your highs and lows is fab and makes me realise how much you made this your own holiday and did what you both enjoyed and wanted to do...I know a couple of times I might have bemoaned the seemingly slow starts to the day as it feels like a 'waste' of quality park time to not be there at rope drop. However, you made it to fireworks more times than we ever do as of course with our early starts we're often shattered by 9pm! So, I think you did well to recognise you both enjoyed the relaxation in the morning and this meant you were able to keep going until later.

Your next holiday (2019, not the bonus Aunt trip) sounds like it will be fab. You will definitely get good use out of the packing cubes with your 3 hotels!

Thanks so much for sharing your holiday you know I've loved reading all about it .

See more...

Thank you for reading

I got frustrated at some of our slow starts too, believe me! Especially when we had Universal FastPasses with early entry and Chris wouldn't wake up.
You are right though, we did late nights almost every night with fireworks or drinks. We couldn't have burnt the candle at both ends as tiredness + hot weather would have caused a fair few more spats.

2019 should be good. I'm excited to return to Crescent Lake, and Chris is hoping he can do the breweries and sports he missed due to Irma.

I'm trying not to think about the possibility of going with my Aunt too much, as then I won't be too disappointed if it doesn't happen... though I may have reinstalled the Disneyworld app, and was reading the wait times yesterday out loud to Chris. 80 minutes for Space Mountain!

Thanks again for reading along and all of your lovely comments. I'm hoping there will be a trippie to accompany your upcoming trip too