Travelmum’s Orlando Holiday Trip Report

[Travel Mum]

Monday 03 October – Epcot

This was our third theme park day in a row and third early morning a row so I knew it would be hard on my family. However, they were great and got up and to the bus depot in time as I’d planned. We had no breakfast booked this morning so we had bought some bananas the night before and took them to eat while we were waiting for rope drop at Epcot.


Waiting for Epcot to open

Once the gates opened, I went to Soarin to get fastpasses while DH and the girls headed to Test Track and waited for me there. I knew Epcot was big but it really has to be experienced to be believed – it is massive! It felt like I was walking (very fast walking) for ages and ages before I got to Soarin and then of course I had to go all the way back and across to Test Track. To complicate things, after two days of wearing trainers to the parks, I had changed and worn my Croc Cleos today which are really not designed for fast walking or running. On a side note though, thanks so much to those who recommended Croc Cleos because they were ideal! They were so comfy and I could wear them day after day without getting any blisters plus my feet kept so cool wearing them. Never wore trainers again after that day.

Anyway, back to my morning, when I got to Test Track, DD6 came running over to me crying and I wondered why. Turns out that on the way to Test Track, they had come across one of those fountains that randomly squirt up from the ground. She had taken a risk and it hadn’t paid off! Her shorts were all wet and she wanted to go back to the hotel to change. No chance sorry darling, we are going on Test Track with no wait while we can! We went on Test Track and, even though it broke down momentarily when we were half way through, we loved it. As soon as we got off, we went straight back in for another time and this time it didn’t break down. Test Track was certainly our favourite ride at Epcot.

Next we on Mission Space, again with barely any wait. DD10 and myself went on the mild version while DH, DD13 and DD6(!!) went on the intense version. It was good and I think we all went on the version that suited us so we had chosen well (by the way, DD6’s shorts were dry by now). After that, we went over to Nemo and the Seas. We did the Nemo ride and then watched Turtle Talk with Crush which was cute. Since we were over that way, we rode Soarin using our fastpasses. We’d been on it before in DCA but it was DD6’s first time. It was good but we don’t find it that amazing and I’m glad I hadn’t dragged the family over there first thing in the morning to do the fastpass and ride scenario in order to get two rides of it in.

As we had an 11.55 am (about that time – I know it was the earliest lunch seating time anyway) dining reservation at Akershus, we needed to head over to Norway so, given the size of Epcot, realised we should get going! Luckily Norway was one of the first countries as you walk clockwise so we got there in time but it was really hot and we needed to walk quite fast so the family got a bit flustered. We registered and were soon called in to have our photo with Belle. That is actually a good value (especially when you are on free dining like we were!) meal as we were given two large photos in a frame – one with Belle and the girls and the other with Belle with all of us – as well as four 4x6 size photos of each of the two images which came as part of the lunch package! The lunch started by going to a cold buffet which offered some tasty Scandinavian food and then came your a’la carte choices. Far too much food for lunch of course! As we ate, we were visited by Mary Poppins, Princess Aurora, Cinderella and Snow White. So I thought that was great that we got to meet four Disney princesses plus Mary Poppins and needless to say the girl’s autograph books were fast filling up.

(can't seem to get Mary Poppins photo to resize so can't include one of her)



This was our day that I had scheduled an afternoon break so I knew we needed to head back to POR after lunch. However, since we were there, we did the Norway ride as we had grabbed fastpasses for it before lunch and so could get on it straight away. After that, we headed back to the main gate and, as we walked under the giant golf ball, we noticed there was no line for Spaceship Earth so we jumped in the line and quite enjoyed that ride.

Thought the Spaceship Earth photos were funny and clever:

We went back to the resort and had a relaxing swim and a rest in the room. I think I did some handwashing from memory. I guess we had 3-4 hours back at the resort and then late afternoon we went back into Epcot.

Boarding the bus to go back to Epcot

We had a 6pm reservation at San Angel Inn in Mexico so we were back in Epcot by about 5pm. The World Showcase was very busy because of the Food and Wine festival so we slowly made our way to Mexico. We enjoyed our dinner at San Angel Inn and the setting was great. After dinner, we did the boat ride in Mexico and I thought that was pretty lame!

DH put the camera on a different setting so this photo came out very yellow!

Tonight was our night to watch Illuminations but we had a while to wait until 9pm so this was also our opportunity to explore the rest of the World Showcase countries. We walked clockwise from Mexico around the lagoon and it was a lovely cool time to do that compared to the heat of the day. However, it was pretty busy with people and I’m not sure we saw the countries in all their detail since it was night time.

Pleased to see New Zealand represented

Looking back across the lagoon to Future World:

At about 8.30 pm we realised we should be getting into place for Illuminations so we were at Canada by that stage and got a good spot at the railings. Illuminations was great and, although I did try to take some photos, they don’t do it justice so I soon gave up. Afterwards, we knew to wait a while before attempting to exit so we went into one of the huge Disney stores for 20 minutes before going to the bus depot which seemed to work well.

See, my photos were useless!

Back to the resort and finally nothing scheduled for early the next morning so we could have a sleep-in. Yay!!

 

[Travel Mum]

What's disney quest?

It is a building at Downtown Disney with 5 floors of video games and virtual reality games.

www.disneyworld.disney.go.com/desti...nt/disney-quest-indoor-interactive-theme-park

 

[Anne_Aus]

Loving your report and photos not to mention how much more excited they make me

Also making me think rope drop might be worth it

 

[Jade+3]

We were at Epcot that same day, and watched Illuminations too. What did you think of San Angel? I am hoping that my boys are past the chicken nuggets and chips stage next time we go.

 

[alicia1506]

this is a great TR - can't wait for the next installment

 

[Travel Mum]

Also making me think rope drop might be worth it

Yes, yes, yes, rope drop is so important. The first hour or two is when you can get so many more rides done than any other time of the day.

 

[Travel Mum]

We were at Epcot that same day, and watched Illuminations too. What did you think of San Angel? I am hoping that my boys are past the chicken nuggets and chips stage next time we go.

Oh wow, you were there at the same time as us?!!

We liked San Angel and DD6 was happy with the Quesadilla off the children's menu. DD10 and DD13 ordered off the adults menu and ate well. It is not your Taco Bell style Mexican (which I will admit, we do love), but is more upscale Mexican food which is nice for a change.

 

[Travel Mum]

this is a great TR - can't wait for the next installment

Thanks so much and I'm enjoying doing it as it helps with my post-holiday blues. However, might not be until next weekend before I can do anymore as had better focus on work during the week

 

[alicia1506]

Thanks so much and I'm enjoying doing it as it helps with my post-holiday blues. However, might not be until next weekend before I can do anymore as had better focus on work during the week

i know, work is so annoying when it gets in the way of DIS related goodness -- but if you're like me, work helps pay for the DIS love, so we do what we must!!!

i hope my TR when i come back is as good as yours!!!

 

[Travel Mum]

By the way, thanks so much for the advice I received here about the T-moblie Prepaid Sim card from Travelgear.com.au because otherwise I would never have known about it. It was certainly a fantastic deal for us. I have a Samsung Galaxy 2 and I bought the Prepaid Sim with the $60 Unlimited talk, text and web. It meant that I could regularly send texts to my family at home (who loved getting the updates) and I could actually call my mother (on her land line) and have long chats while I was sitting by the pool watching the girls swim. My mother was thrilled with that! I could also get the internet on my phone although I had to go outside the room at POR to get a good enough reception for that!

My sister-in-law got one too and put it in her I-phone which worked perfectly.

Hope that helps

 

[Mum from oz]

Thanks for the update and info about the travel sim. I will definitely be ordering one to use in my iPhone next year.

 

[australiankaren]

hey
great start...

Remember EPCOT stands for Every Person Comes Out Tired...people dont realise how huge the place is..... definitely a sand shoe kind of a day

loving the pics..... especially the line drop ones as we never seem to make them....

will definitely try the Norway character meal now.....thanks for the info

 

[Travel Mum]

Oops forgot to mention the Kim Possible Mission on our Epcot day - probably because it didn't work out that well. Let me explain. During the morning we were there, I picked up fastpasses for a Kim Possible mission (they are not linked to the main fastpass system) with the plan to use it when we came back into the park later for dinner. The person said that we needed to make our way to Italy when we wanted to start.

So we got back into the park at about 5pm with our dinner reservation at 6pm and I insisted that we do the Kim Possible Mission then as I thought I'd read somewhere that they finished at 7pm. It was actually still quite hot at that time of day but still I hustled the family over to the boat with the plan to catch it to Germany as I could see that Italy was right next to Germany. Easy I thought. DH not thrilled I must say. So, we get off the boat and I rush us over to the KP station in Italy to start our mission and then I learnt my mistake. I thought that we had been allocated Italy as our country but it turns out everyone starts in Italy and then are given their mission country from there. Whoops! So, we get our Kimmunicator and we are advised our mission is in JAPAN!! That would normally be fine by it meant we would have to get over to Japan, do the mission and then get all the way back to Mexico for our dinner reservation!

However, although my family could have easily left it, I was still determined because it was one of those things I had researched and was apparently fun for kids etc So off I rushed us to Japan, DH really not impressed now, and we started the mission. Each girls had a turn with the phone and that worked fine except it was really hard to hear the instructions as there was an Eat to the Beat concert nearby on which was very loud. We had to really hurry through it and then afterwards had to zoom as fast as we could, in the heat and through the Food and Wine festival crowds, to Mexico. So the KP mission did not turn out how I expected. It was good but I think would be best to do if you had lots of time to spare in Epcot which we did not.

 

[Travel Mum]

Tuesday 04 October – Blizzard Beach and Epcot

After three early mornings in a row, I had deliberately planned for this day to be a sleep-in and we certainly needed it. From memory, I think we had breakfast at the food court and then we got ready to head to Blizzard Beach. We had been really looking forward to the Disney water parks as we have nothing like it here in N.Z. and we had been watching the online videos of each ride. The water parks open at 10am and I knew that, in order to get well-placed loungers and short ride queues, we should get there in plenty of time for “rope drop” just like the theme parks. However, I had purposely wanted this to be a restful day for my family and therefore sacrificed those opportunities by scheduling a go-slow morning. In other words, I prioritized the theme parks over the water parks but I still secretly hoped it would be a quiet day when we visited the water parks.

So, we eventually got there about 11 am and it was packed! There was not a single spare lounger so we just dumped our towels on a couple of chairs and went off to ride. Previously we had hired a locker and put all our valuables and clothes into it including our non-waterproof camera so I unfortunately don’t have any photos past that point (and I did not see any photopass photographers at either water park!).

We started with the family raft ride which could fit all five of us in one raft and it was heaps of fun. Then we did a ride where we all raced each other down a slope on foam rafts. From there DH took DD13 and DD10 off to do Summit Plummet while I took DD6 to the kid’s area. I can’t remember what else we did after that but we basically just rode rides, relaxed in the lazy river etc.

We actually found this day to be so relaxing compared to the theme park days and I wish we could have stayed longer but we had an early dining reservation at Epcot so we had to leave about mid afternoon. Another time I would schedule a whole day for a water park.

Our dinner tonight was at the Biergarten in Germany so, after going back to POR and getting ready, we were back on a bus into Epcot. Our reservation was for 5.30 pm but, on our way the boat, we grabbed fastpasses for Test Track. Then on the boat we went over the lagoon to Germany. Biergarten was not one of my personal favourite meals because the food did not excite me (DH really enjoyed it though) and I think we were a bit tired that night. Also, you are seated with other people and, although they were lovely, I just really did not like making small talk that night. However, the restaurant is amazing inside as they have recreated a very realistic Bavarian village and the show was entertaining. I realise I didn’t even take any photos but I did take video of some of it.

So, after dinner, we wandered around the World Showcase a bit and then headed for our ride on Test Track which we all enjoyed again. We had an early morning at HS the next morning so we didn’t stay too late at Epcot and headed back to POR.

Some Test Track photos:

That was our last time at Epcot and it is the only park that I really feel I didn’t allow enough time for. We never got to go on any of the more minor rides in Future World nor go into either Innoventions. The park just took so much longer to get around during our morning the day before at Future World than I had anticipated and then of course Innoventions is closed at 7pm so wasn’t an option for us to do after either of our Epcot dinners. So, I have a bit of regret about that.

 

[Mum from oz]

Blizzard beach looks fun!

I also found that we (I) didn't allow enough time to explore. We raced through the world showcase and did a few of the headliners and that's it. You are so right, it is such a big park. It felt the biggest walking around it wise.

 

[Travel Mum]

Wednesday 05 October – Hollywood Studios

This was the day I was nervous about because I knew I had to face the Toy Story Dash! I was the FPV and I’d decided to go with the “fast pass and ride” strategy so knew it was my job to do the “dash”. I knew we were supposed to get to the park by 8-8.15 am for a 9am opening in order to be right at the rope which was apparently very important in my strategy. However, it was hard to get going this morning and I think we got there about 8.30 am. When we got off the bus, my heart sank as the queues were already very long. They hadn’t opened the gates yet but, once they did and we got through, the closest I could get to the rope was way back in the pack. So I was worried. The plan was for me to head to the fast pass machine and for DH and the girls to get into the Standby queue. Then, when they got to the point where the line goes inside the building, they would stand to the side and let people pass until I, having got in the queue after getting my 9.40 am return fastpasses, caught up to them.

So the rope dropped and we raced to our respective positions. When I got to the fast pass machines they were all about 10 people back. It then turned out that I had stood in a dud line as the machine broke and a cast member had to come and fix it! Eventually I got to the machine and my fastpasses were issued with a return time of 10.10 am – darn I had missed the first window. However, happily, when I went to get in the Standby queue, a cast member called me over and opened the rope for me to join my family who were waiting at the door as planned.

The queue moved very fast at that time of day and we hardly had a chance to hear Mr Potato Head talk! We enjoyed the ride (much more than Buzz) and were glad we had fastpasses to go on again later but I’m still not sure I understand the hype and it’s ridiculous that 90% of people need to head to that ride first thing in the morning. I think HS has to build another headliner ride that appeals to all ages in order to spread some of the crowds.

So after that we reverted to my touring plan which was to go on Tower of Terror and then get fastpasses for Rockin Rollercoaster. We enjoyed this Tower of Terror more that at DL for some reason and it was great we could all go on it as DD6 was now tall enough.

We got some cupcakes from Starring Rolls because I just had to try a Red Velvet Cupcake (and the girls had some peanut butter chocolate type ones) but really we found them too large and sweet for our tastes. It would have been much better to split a couple instead of get one each.

We continued on our touring plan and did most rides including Star Tours (good), the Back lot tour (a wee bit dumb), Rockin Rollercoaster (a wee bit intense for me but DH, DD10 and DD13 loved it – DD6 too short to ride) and Toy Story Mania again. We watched the Indiana Jones Stunt show and Muppet Vision 3D and in the middle we had lunch at Sci-Fi Diner which was fun. We went briefly into Honey I shrunk the Kids Playground but it was packed with kids and parents and so hot, we did not stay for long.

This was intended to be a ¾ day and I think we left about 4pm.


By the way, this is our POR room:

 

[Mum from oz]

How was the food at Sci Fi? The rooms at POR looks really nice. Did you have a rollaway bed too?

 

[Travel Mum]

How was the food at Sci Fi? The rooms at POR looks really nice. Did you have a rollaway bed too?

We all had burgers and fries at Sci-Fi which were good but unfortunately we were all too full after eating those huge cupcakes mid morning so did not do the food justice and none of us could face a dessert at Sci-Fi!

Yes, we had the trundle which was under the bed nearest the entrance door. You can't see it in the photo as it gets pushed right under the bed during the day. It was fine but none of the girls wanted to be sleeping below everyone else so it meant they all had to take turns sleeping on it. I even had a night on it during one night of musical beds and it was fine.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Catching up. Looks like you all had a great time. Epcot is pretty big, isn't it?

 

[Toy Story]

Thanks for the update on the delivery for the Disney shop, I will keep my eye out for sales in month leading up to our trip.