I Don't Know What I've Been Told, Florida Heat Gets Pretty Old- Sep 2017 TR! Updated 7/11

[Sparkly]

Here goes nothing, another attempt to chronicle the ups, downs and magic moments of our September 2017 trip to WDW!

So who came with? All three of us this time. Yet another "last family trip" just like the one in 2013, 2015...I can't imagine going to WDW without them really even though the heat brings out the worst in everyone's tempers. (@Toffeewoffy can attest to that..ahem)

We stayed at Old Key West in a 1 bedroom villa from the 17th-25th September then a 1 bedroom villa at Bay Lake Tower from the 25th-28th September. Dad's first time at OKW and my first time staying at BLT!

Without further ado, lets get on with the show!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Travel Day
Day 1- Disney Springs/DHS
Day 2- Magic Kingdom
Day 3- Epcot
Day 4- Shopping day
Day 5- Epcot pt 2
Day 6- Resort morning/Magic Kingdom
Day 7- Animal Kingdom
Day 8- Goodbye OKW, hello BLT!
Day 9- Resort morning/MNSSHP
Day 10- Shopping/MK
Day 11- Time for home
(Links will be added here as I add each update so watch this space!)

 

[Sparkly]

Travel day- September 17th, 2017

Woke up at 5:15am (!) and couldn't get back to sleep so decided to get up and showered.

Hung out on youtube for a while watching random stuff and then went downstairs to grab the leftover pizza for a pre breakfast breakfast and turned on the tv whilst I did a last minute check of my suitcases. Then it was time to wait for the taxi. That arrived about 8:45 and we had an uneventful journey to Gatwick North Terminal.

We found check in okay, but security was a bit stressful. It felt a bit disorganised and Dad had to be the one person who got everything in the bag checked. Oh well.

After this was done, Mum checked in with special assistance and a Boots meal deal was obtained. Then onto breakfast at Garfunkels- I had pancakes. They were okay, but too sweet to eat the entirety of. I think I would have preferred McDs breakfast honestly!

After breakfast, boarding time came around quickly and we had a minor meltdown on my part because I got confused and a bit stressed out when Mum was delayed getting to the gate via special assistance.

Eventually we were settled in to the plane for a (mostly) uneventful flight during which the following highlights occurred:

-Lunch was actually okay- a nut free/lactose free meal of teriyaki chicken, sweet potato and green beans with a raspberry puree and some dried apple things for dessert.

-Tea was the complete opposite and was disgusting for all. A very kind stewardess found us each a banana and one tangerine instead which was very pleasing.

-All the cool passengers hang out at the back of the plane.

-I managed to lose a (almost brand new) hand sanitiser, but luckily at the last minute I found it was between the two plane seats all the time.

Getting through MCO was the interesting part. Poor Dad had to push Mum through Immigration then special assistant basically abandoned us in the baggage reclaim hall. Fun!! But eventually we managed to get through and get our rental car- a beautiful Chrysler Pacfica. You know when you have a fancy car when there’s a button to open the door automatically!!

The journey from the airport to our resort was uneventful and we even managed to get there without getting lost. Dad of course managed to cause a ruckus before we even checked in by creating because he “lost his wallet”. He didn’t. Oh and apparently OKW didn’t get the information about any of our room requests, and we were allocated a room on the 1st floor in a building without lifts!!

Well eventually that was all sorted and we got a room in building 29 on the ground floor instead. We grabbed some food from Goods To Go and our resort mugs and had a quiet dinner in the room. I had a pulled pork sandwich with a mango and apparently rum dressing which was actually quite nice and everyone else had a prawn cobb salad. Not too bad considering our last experience with Goods To Go.

Eventually decided to go to bed about 10:30. zzzzz

 

[Toffeewoffy]

Emma, it was a DODGE Pacifica. And you missed the bit where your dad wouldn't leave the car because he couldn't get it to lock! Well, it was his first experience with a 'proximity' key, and didn't know that if you walk out of range with the key the car will lock itself. It was a free upgrade, though. The most comfy car ever. I don't think we'll ever find another one accidentally parked in our row ...

 

[BriLovesDisney]

Following along! Can't wait to hear all the trip details

 

[Sparkly]

Emma, it was a DODGE Pacifica. And you missed the bit where your dad wouldn't leave the car because he couldn't get it to lock! Well, it was his first experience with a 'proximity' key, and didn't know that if you walk out of range with the key the car will lock itself. It was a free upgrade, though. The most comfy car ever. I don't think we'll ever find another one accidentally parked in our row ...

Okay, noted...

Following along! Can't wait to hear all the trip details

Thank you, it was a pretty fun trip so I'm looking forward to sharing

 

[buzznina]

Emma, it was a DODGE Pacifica. And you missed the bit where your dad wouldn't leave the car because he couldn't get it to lock! Well, it was his first experience with a 'proximity' key, and didn't know that if you walk out of range with the key the car will lock itself. It was a free upgrade, though. The most comfy car ever. I don't think we'll ever find another one accidentally parked in our row ...

Emma was correct, Chrysler makes the Pacifica, Dodge has the Grand Caravan.

 

[Sparkly]

Day 1- Disney Springs/DHS- 18th September 2017

Got a very bad sleep because for some reason our dishwasher beeped loudly every 10 minutes and after waking up after only a couple of hours because of it, trying earplugs to no avail I eventually started playing around with the buttons and pulled a lever- which made quite some noise but it stopped the beeping!!

Fell back asleep and eventually woke at 6:15am. The first order of the morning was getting our mugs filled with a cold drink for me and hot cocoa for Mum. Our room was a fairly pleasant 10 minute walk to the main building, only I got back (almost forgetting our building number!!) to find I accidentally bought the wrong type of milk. Oops. Then we couldn’t do much else for a bit because Mum needed to wait for her scooter to be delivered.

Once it was though, we were off to Disney Springs for a leisurely morning. We had a nice morning browsing the shops and then got Blaze Pizza for lunch. I had pepperoni, mushroom, ham and green peppers and it was delicious.

With our stomachs full of tasty pizza, we got the resort launch back to OKW and filled our mugs before heading to Hollywood studios. Once there we went to see Star Wars launch bay, where we saw Chewie (gives good hugs) and Kylo Ren (very bossy). Then it was time to use our toy story mania fastpass. I won!!

We continued to meander around the park and went to see Starlord and baby Groot, who was adorable. After that we really needed a break for a cool drink and air conditioning, so to ABC Commissary we went for strawberry lemonade slushies which really hit the spot. Star Tours, our next FP made me regret that decision a bit. Mickey and Minnie had a very long line to meet them, but Olaf not so much, and he does give very warm hugs. This gave my stomach the chance to digest the slushie and brave TOT. After TOT we were a little early for our ADR at 50s Prime Time so we hung around the lobby for a while and were eventually called in, but actually 10 mins late.

What did we think? Fantastic. Very sweet waitress, great food and great service. All three of us had the fried chicken, mine gluten/dairy free. Huge portion of chicken, 4 pieces! And absolutely delicious, today has been a very satisfying dairy free day. Dessert was smores for me (tasty but a bit sickly) and chocolate brownie and chocolate peanut butter layer cake respectively for the others. A very good meal all round.

Afterwards we went to see the Star Wars night spectacular- wow!! Awesome fireworks, assorted pyrotechnics, lasers and projections on the Chinese Theater. Then a scrum to exit the park as it was closing time and time for us to pay a much needed visit to Walmart. We regretted this decision. Clearly they had a stock problem because there was almost nothing there and we left with a bag of peanut butter M&Ms, a jar of peanut butter and some painkillers when we also wanted a loaf of bread, juice etc.Then when we got home I went straight to bed!!!

 

[Sparkly]

Day 2- Magic Kingdom- 19th September 2017

Woke up at 5:30am AGAIN. But I couldn’t stay mad for long, because today we were off to Magic Kingdom.

We set out at 7:30am with plenty of time to spare before our 8:40am Be Our Guest ADR. We waited about 15 mins for a bus and were soon off.

We arrived and were directed around the castle to Fantasyland, stopping for a photopass picture (and a sticker) on the way. We were seated in the music box room and we had Feast A La Gaston x2 and 1 open topped breakfast sandwich. When eager eyed Mum spotted we only had 5 pastries, she managed to net us a second pastry plate.

All three meals were delicious! I was stuffed afterwards. We got drink refills to put into our mugs and suncreamed up before heading into New Fantasyland to ride Dumbo. We walked onto it and managed to get a Dumbo each.

Then it was onto Big Top Treats where we did a little window shopping and paid a visit to the treats case. I got a pumpkin Mickey head, very cute! A big bag of caramel popcorn was also bought and stashed away in the backpack for later.

Then onto Tomorrowland for saving the galaxy with Buzz! I won!! Mum complained that the guns weren’t working and they let us go round again. I won that time too. I found a couple of 100,000 targets and a good couple of shots at those takes you far.

Afterwards, we did Carousel Of Progress because a day at MK just wouldn’t be complete without it. Towards the end of the opening scene I noticed a couple getting up and leaving, and sure enough, there was an announcement that we would have to repeat a scene. Cue groans all round and applause when we actually got to move on.

Then it was time for one of many stops for a well needed drink, I drank a LOT of water but it was soo hot you really needed it. And air conditioned attractions were worth their weight in gold too, so Philarmagic was next. Another must-do at MK and a classic.

Then our fastpass for Mine Train was up, and always an enjoyable ride. Surprisingly fast for a Fantasyland coaster! I noticed that it was much slower getting into the unload now which allowed me more time to enjoy Snow White dancing in the cottage which was nice. The flowers around the cottage have grown in nicely now and it’s all very cute.

And of course, Small World was there. And we did it. Of course. After that, I needed some sustenance, so it was onwards to Columbia Harbour House. I for some reason didn’t feel too hungry, so although I got a tuna sandwich as usual I barely touched it. The tuna was very dry and I didn’t like it much. I grinned and beared it before heading over to the grim grinning ghosts to socialise. I always like this ride, but the bulging door is really creepy!!

Afterwards it was onto Frontierland, and onto Big Thunder Mountain! One of my top 5 favourite thrill rides and especially good at night time because it gets pretty scary!!

The heat was really getting to all of us by this time and we had been in MK all day which as you probably know doesn’t equal a happy bunch of people. I was especially grumpy because Jungle Cruise was still down, but I knew what might make me better..a dole whip! Sure, it’s “just” pineapple soft serve but it’s dairy free and a frozen dessert, and to be honest I would even welcome a cup of ice cold water tipped over me at that point. It really hit the spot.

But unfortunately, it was still around 4pm and we still had ages until our 6:30pm dinner at Crystal Palace. I was getting pretty overtired and just wanted to head back to the resort..no can do, by the time we got there it would be time to head back. Eventually we settled on splitting up for a while and meeting back up outside Crystal Palace, which was fine by me. It was a party day so getting quite crowded by now which didn’t help!!

I took this opportunity to finally visit the Swiss Family Treehouse and it was actually pretty cool, but I can’t imagine having to wait in line just to walk up and down the tree!! Then it was back over to Tomorrowland again where I did Laugh Floor. I saw a different segment of the show where they do a geography based skit which was pretty funny. Usually I just see the mind reading one.

I didn’t fancy doing Buzz, CoP or Space so I chose Peoplemover, because I absolutely love that ride and could honestly ride it over and over again. Then I walked over to Fantasyland and did the Teacups because why not? I didn’t want to walk further into Fantasyland so I wandered back into the hub and settled down in the Plaza Gardens. It’s really nice in there and it was lovely to listen to the Main Street music whilst people watching- there were some really creative halloween costumes walking through!

Soon it was time to meet back up with the others, and they came bearing gifts. A WDW 2018 calendar for me! Yay! And Mum showed me this amazing plush she bought of Lucifer from Cinderella which had this super long fluffy tail. We waited a fair bit for our reservation then finally got seated inside.

The chef came out to take me through the buffet which I thought was really cool and I found a few tasty looking things to eat. I quite enjoyed the chicken, salmon and the carved beef. I had a couple of good plates then asked for my dessert- which was a plate of goodies including a brownie (which was DELICIOUS), ice cream and cookies. Mmmmmm.

But of course, you want to hear what we got up to with the characters. They came round quite promptly, and I finally got to fulfil a childhood dream and bounce with Tigger!! And got plenty of Eeyore hug goodness. Piglet even assisted with my poor father’s ice cream headache. A fairly good meal, but slightly underwhelming.

After dinner the halloween party was in full swing so we made our way out and back to the resort. I pretty much kept the pull out chair in bed position the whole stay so I could pretty much collapse into my bed as soon as I got back!! No prizes for guessing what I did on my return from the park today.