Walt Disney World....take 1 !

Arriving in orlando was very exciting. :) although i felt calmer then i usually do when i get to orlando! We collected our luggage & Then headed out to catch our shuttle....super shuttle....a great company we have used loads of times whilst travelling. Unfortunately for us tho the driver dropped off everyone else before dropping us off so the journey was longer then we wanted it to be! We arrived at our hotel...."fairfield inn at marriott village" and it was lovely and our room was great, had a huge bed, nice size tv, and a bath! We went and got a pizza from the 7/11 and chilled in the room. We were so tired and just wanted to sleep.

We had breaky included with our room price so went down to breaky that first morning and there was muffins, toast, cereal, biscuits and gravy!? And scrambled egg which had some serious salt in it so that made it taste foul! But the rest of breaky was great. We decided to walk down to the crossroads near the entrance to where the disney area was and many restaurants. I knew it wasnt far from the hotel as i had looked it up previously but asked the staff how far it was anyway! And they said it was 2-3 miles! I couldnt believe how wrong they were! And was glad we researched it ourselves! It is a ten minute walk if that! We went to dennys as first port of call! Obviously! And then went to get some snacks to have in the park later from the super market.

There was a shuttle going from our hotel to magic kingdom transport center but it was limited service so we did what we did last time we was here and walked to the best western and got there free bus everywhere, they were really frequent and more convineant. And it worked betterf or us that way.

We had decided our first park would be the magic kingdom! We first went to the booth to get our annual passes! We had preivously decided that these would be better value for us as all in all we would be here for more then two weeks and we would use the discounts and perks you get with the annual pass. I was super excited....seeing the monorail, the micky and minnie that were cut from a bush just by the monrail and just the general merryment of disney! 

We got the monorail over to the entrance and were shocked at how un busy it was, i mean it was still busier then we liked! But not to bad, it was a overcast day but hot! Just walking into the magic kingdom and seeing mainstreet was such a happy moment for me....and luke was also starting to love it.

We wasnt in anykind of rush and had arranged a Few fast passes but would just do things as we saw them. Last time we came the fast pass system was different...you just put your ticket in a machine and got a fast pass time to come back....now you had to book it online ! It was a thought that daunted me at first but its a really easy system to get into, you just need to plan where you are going to be and when. We had got fast passes for space mountain, buzz lightyear and mickeys philar magic show. When we first got into the park we just wondered down main street and looked in a few shops and took some pics etc, it was so nice being here and not rushing! We first went to the new fantasyland as this was new and we hadnt been there yet, it was relatively busy and most of the rides here had a long wait, especially the newly opened seven dwarfs mine train! That had just opened yesterday! And the que was over 2 hours long! We needed to get a fast pass for this! We went on goofys little rollercoaster! And had a good time wondering around in this land. We did a few other things....haunted mansion, jamboree show which i had never seen before and the tiki room show which i had also never seen before! We did space mountain, buzz, people mover, carosel of progress and a few other things before we went to find a good spot for the electrical light parade, we loved this parade it was so pretty. After this we felt quite tired so decided to head back before the crowds started ! 

We had a great first day at disney and we was really looking forward to going to all the other parks and Exploring more of disney. 

We woke up and got ready for my fave park....animal kingdom :) we wanted to get there relatively early, we had got our fast passes online previously so were ready, we got our hotel bus to magic and then the disney bus from polynesian resort to animal kingdom :) i was so Excited when we arrived i had missed it so much. We just took it slow strolling around looking at the animals at the start of the park. It was a hot humid day but cloudy which we were pleased for. As we walked passed the animals we immediately saw the circle of life tree :) this tree was so beautiful and we never got bored of seeing it :) 

We headed over to dino land! I love dinosaurs ! So i was excited! We went onto the dino spin ride first which was closed last time me and luke came a couple of years ago! And it was slower then i remebered ! But still good. We then headed over to the ride dinosaur! Whilst on route we spotted donald duck! And off course had to stop for a pic!

We had a fast pass for the dinosaur ride so walked straight on! This ride was a little scary. It was a dinosaur rescue mission set back in time of the dinosaur era it wasnt particularly fast but it had a few points where dinosaurs come out of no where and scare you! I just couldnt stop laughing the whole time and screaming! It was so funny! Defo one of my fave rides! We wondered over to expedition everest to see what the que time was....it wasnt to bad 25 minutes so we qued up for that we had a fast pass for later but if we could get on it now and later even better! We loved that ride it is the fastest ride there and just generally pretty epic! We had a wonder around after this and went to see the monkeys they were swinging in the trees :) we also wanted to see the parade. We wondered right over to africa land and had a sit down with some frozen lemonade! We sat for around 30 minutes and then realised we were sitting on the parade route! So we had a great front seat view! And i didnt realise until now that the mickeys jammin jungle parade was going to be the last one ever :( i was so sad :( it was a nice parade and animal kingdom only had one parade, it was a sad time watching it go past us for the last time, and some of the staff actually in the parade were crying :(  i was sad but so pleased we got to see it one last time. We had a fast pass for the nemo show which we were going to walk over to we hadnt seen the show last time as it was just so busy but today we had fast passes so we wouldnt miss it.

The nemo show was quite good, luke really enjoyed it i thought it was ok, right at the beginning when nemos mum is eaten by a shark most of the kids in the theatre broke into a sob! It was quite heart breaking! But after that they recovered and all was well again! After this we decided to head back....not before one more go on dinosaur tho! 

We decided to take the similar route we took to animal kingdom back to the hotel again, disney bus to polynesian and then downtown hotel bus to best western and then walk back from there. However as we got back to magic and boarded the bus we realised it was taking longer then usual and then we ended up back at animal kingdom! The bus obviously did a magic and animal pick up and we didnt realise! So we had just done a lovely hour long round trip! We was so tired today so napped on the bus. But what a great day at animal kingdom.

Today it rained! All bloody day.....hard! Normally in florida you get the afternoon down pour especially in june and then it stops but this rain was so bloody heavy, going out in it would get us soaked! So we stayed in sorted some stuff out and spoke to family, a short facetime with my mum and dad turned into 1.5 hours as usual! And obviously we spoke to my boos, and my little chester wanted to show me a trick on his trampoline so sat me outside on the table while he went on the trampolone and when my sister had to take the ipad inside he said "no he wanted me outside to watch him" made me sad i wasnt there but i love that he Wants me to see all these things he does and I love watching them. My sister had given us a recommendation for dinner it was a place called "sweet tomato" it was a buffet style restaurant mostly serving vegatarian food! And a lot of salad :) we decided we would eat there and when the rain died down we set off, it was only down The road at the cross roads, as it was a sunday it was quite busy, it wasnt formal very laidback and there was so much to choose from! So much scrummy salad and jacket potatoes! Which i loved! And pizza, soups, loads of desserts! It was so scrummy and of course we stuffed our faces until we couldnt move! It was only $10! Bargain. So all in all a lazy day but we were all revitalized for another day at disney tomorrow!

Today we were off to hollywood studios but i still call it MGM as thats what it was called when i was a child! Out of all the parks this one was my least fave! I still enjoyed it but not as much as the others and i dont know why?! This is also lukes least fave however we both love Aerosmith ride and the art of animation part. We started the day at the areosmith ride and we then went to art of animation where we learnt to draw olaf from frozen and Mickey mouse :) we then met mickey and minnie :) and spent some time looking at all the art that was in the shops we loved this part :)

Next we went to pixar street stopping at walt disneys "one mans dream" i loved this and never got bored of seeing it it was all about walts childhood and a lot of his early work and then there was a short film with actual footage and chat with walt. We really wanted to ride toy story mania but the que was almost two hours so we would wait until next time and get a fast pass. However i did meet green army man :) it was getting really hot and busy so we went and saw the little mermaid show which we had fast passes for i loved this show :) i just love little mermaid she is my fave ....after winnie the pooh of course :) we then went back to aerosmith ride as we had a fast pass and spent a bit of time just browsing the shops :) we managed also to get two seats at the beauty and the beast show at the last minute :) it was a great show. We hadnt done as much as we wanted but still done quite a lot, we Called it a day and on the way back stopped at sweet tomato for another feast! And this time we had our lunchbox with us as we had been taking pack lunch with us to the parks and it was not busy at all at the restaurant, so we filled ot up with salad and also took some pizza! That would feed us tomorrow! What a good day!

Today we were going to epcot :) epcot to me is a little odd! Theres a lot of interactive things to do and some of it i just think is odd and a waste of time! Epcot is all about the future. Its very interesting but odd at the same time, however the world showcase is pretty epic! But today we would just do epcot itself. We was going to do spaceship earth but the que was an hour so we moved on! Everytime i come here i wonder why they changed the ride to spaceship earth, it used to be a ride that took you into the human body! And it was like you was exploring the human body going from organ to organ and it told you what did what! It was so fun and interesting but now it's about time and how things have changed and how they continue to change! I want them to bring back the human body thing it was better! We went over to soarin ....the ride.... as we had fast passes and to be honest we are not overlly keen on it, its just one of those rides you only have to ride a few times. We then went over to the nemo ride and crushes turtle talk! Which we loved ! We of course were the only ones there with no children! As we are big kids at heart! Nemo is just so cool! After this we couldnt really decide what to do so we walked over to the uk part of the world show case so I could meet alice in wonderland :) 

We wanted to get out of the park for a while so took a walk over to the boardwalk, there was a Entrance to the boardwalk through epcot, we hadnt walked round the boardwalk last time so we took a lovely stroll around it today. We went into the bakery which of course was full of gorgeous cakes. We then had a lovely walk all the way around to the yaht and beach club hotel where we took some great pics on the beach they have there.

We then went back to epcot ready to go back to the hotel, epcot had been good and it had been nice to stroll around the boardwalk we would defo come back here after our cruise! 

Today we went to our hotel pool for a couple of hours to soak up some sun before leaving in the late afternoon to head to the magic kingdom, we had realised this was the best time to go for us, we hada few fast passes and a few things we wanted to see and do. We were in no rush today, it was quite busy with some ride ques going upto 1.5 hours with the exception of the seven dwarfs mine train which was well over 2 hours! We had fast passes for little mermaid, winnie the pooh and space mountain! Our plan was to stay until close tonight. We had already seen the electrical light parade so utilised this less busier time to ride some rides, we did however want to see the wishes night time spectacular show which was on at 10pm, we picked a good spot on one of the bridges between tomorrow land and the castle and we had a great view of the the castle and it was great when the light created a Different pattern on it for different themes and songs etc but unfortunately we stood in the wrong place for the fireworks and for hearing the characters speak! So we will do this again when we return from our cruise. After this we rode big thunder mountain and a few of the smaller rides that were now empty including prince charmings carousel! Well i rode that! I was such a big kid! And then at 23.30 we decided to call it a night, another great time in magic kingdom and we couldnt wait to return there after the cruise.

Today we had a very stressful morning! We had planed to book our shuttle to port canaveral for our cruise, we had found a company with a good price $60 each return and we were happy. We were going to go to epcot world showcase today so rang the company just before our bus to book it, it was then that they dropped the bomb.....because we werent going from the airport to the port they would have to add on an extra $160 just to pick us up from our hotel! We couldnt believe it, and after 2 hours of phoning around and getting other quotes we decided we would have to book with this company and then book sepearte shuttles to and from the airport! What a joke, it was so stressful and it shouldnt have been this hard to book a shuttle to get somewhere that is very well travelled! We eventually got to epcot after having to get a taco bell for lunch and the bus from best western, we had also missed our fast pass times by ten minutes we couldnt rebook them earlier as our phones wouldnt connect to the internet! What a morning!

Anyway we had arrived and after going on space ship earth and going to see the ellen show/slow ride which by the way has been there for years and i have never been on! I loved finding firsts! That i hadnt done before! After this we decided to start exploring the world show case starting with mexico! We hadnt really had a good look around last time we were here as it was just so hot! So we wanted to have a good look this time, we started in mexico, then onto norway where they had a small exhibit on what inspired the setting for the film frozen and in my eyes and my sisters they should have had anna and elsa here for character greets aswell as magic kingdom to take some of the pressure off! However they havnt! But thats our views! Next we went onto china and last time we went into the exhibit to see the terracotta army and this time we skipped all that and went into the huge shop! They had some lovely bits in there and very reasonably priced aswell. We wanted (well i !) wanted to see all of the characters here but we didnt actually see any as we were taking our time so much they were gone by the time we got to the countrys they were in so that was going onto the list for next time! We walked through germany, italy, america and japan all had some great shops and great architecture we then went to morroco and france, we decided to go back after this i had a bit of a stress headache from earlier and we wanted to have a early night. We really enjoyed our stroll around the world showcase and enjoyed being able to just do it at a slow pace and take it all in, we would return here after our cruise. 

Today we decided on the animal kingdom we had got our fast passes a few days before for everest, the safari and lion king show :) it was a hot day 35 degrees! And humid! We set off early catching our hotel bus to magic and then walked to the polynesian to get a disney bus to animal! And as we walked we noticed the monorail was down! And there was hundreds of people inline for the ferry! So glad we hadnt decided to go there today! We arrived at animal kingdom at a resonable time and decided to first go to the bugs life show :) unfortunately there was a screaming child next to us the entire show with a dad that found it appropriate to speak at a stupidly loud voice to try to calm the child down the entire show! It shocked me that they didnt leave or the staff didnt suggest they go outside as it disturbed everyone the entire time and its not fair to everyone else, everybody wants to see the show and quite frankly i find it very selfish of the parents to keep a screaming child in a show when clearly they aren't enjoying it and they are disrupting it for everyone else! 

 ....one of the carvings on the circle of life tree.

After this i was on the hunt for pocahontis! I hadnt met her yet! Well i cannot remember meeting her in all the times i have been to disney so was pretty excited! And after this we decided to head for expedition everest! One of our fave rides! And to our horror the fast pass que was out the building & around the corner! However we just joined and eventually got on! And loved every second of it!

We were pretty hot and bothered by now so decided to sit down on the grass in the shade and eat our  lunch and get some frozen lemonade! We also had a sneaky facetime with my mum and dad :) i litrally cannot wait to see them and the rest of the the family ! After our hour break! We headed over to the kilamanjaro safari! Stopping on route to meet king louie and baloo! 

The safari was great as always! And we saw loads of animals, we loved this safari it was very much something we are interested in and love to do....

To be honest after this we were still pretty hot and bothered so found a cool spot to have a Ice cold drink while we waited to go to see the lion king show! And as luck would have it i have been looking for  a particular musical cup for my boo for a gift for a while, its a sort of replica of the circle of life tree and ha Some carvings on and then you can play music on the handle! It's pretty cool ! And as i was heading over to get some icey water there was four of them just sitting there ! i couldn't believe it! i snapped it up and the fruity drink we had with it was pretty nice as well!

We headed to the lion king show which is one of my most fave disney shows. Its just beautiful :) and we thoroughly enjoyed it :) we decided after this it was time to leave! We headed back to our hotel via taco bell! And just chilled and sorted some of our shuttles etc for the remainding of the trip! A good day. All in all! 

The next day was our last full day before the cruise and we had booked a shuttle to take us to a small outlet that was close to a walmart! We didnt want to pay for a taxi there so just took the free shuttle and walked the rest of the way it was only up the road! We were looking for a few things that we had seen in another walmart and i was lookin for a few things for boo and poppins. 

The walmart was huge and we started one end and made our way to the other! However although we got a few good bargains there wasnt the stuff that we wanted in this one! Luke was quite dissapointed and i was pissed right off as there was a Few things i was counting on being in there! We also wanted to buy a suitcase as packing was really getting out of hand! We were going to buy a cheap case and then use my main bag as handluggage! But we didnt get a Case in the end we completely forgot!

We walked back to the outlet and just had a look in a few of the shops before getting collected at 16.30! We bougt a few bits but nothing exciting.... actually luke got himself a fishing coat for $15! Which was a really good bargain! So he was pleased.

We got back to the hotel and whilst driving back we realised there was a Doller tree within walking distance of the hotel! For everyone at home this is basically a 99p store! We walked upto that and then got a pizza from the 7/11 time was getting on and we needed to pack and do a few other things in preparation for our cruise in the morning!

The packing was a absolute nightmare :( and very stressful, it was clear we needed another case, we hadnt bought alot but what you have to remmerber is we do not have 2 cases we have one and then my backpack on wheels which is small, if we had another case things would be alot easier instead we had jam packed every single bag we had to capacity ! It took longer then i wanted and it was a stressful task and even more stressful knowing we would have to pack all over again at the end of the cruise! We....well me especially was completely over packing and unpacking i could not wait to get home and unpack for good! Living out of a bag for ten months has taken its toll.....I AM OVER IT! 

We went to bed really late.....half past midnight and knew we would be tired the next day but were so excited to go on this cruise. 

The next day we got up had breaky, squeezed the last few bits in the suitcase and went to wait for our  shuttle, we had to get a shuttle to the airport then a shuttle to the ship from the airport! It all went smoothly and before we knew it we were checking in for our cruise :) we had been looking forward to this luxuary for almost a year and it was finally here :) we couldnt wait to start our carribean adventure together.

I just read this post back to myself and realise after most paragraphs i have wrote "we will come back here after the cruise"! I guess we will be busy after the cruise!