The Ferrets Southern Adventure.

[Mr Ferret 88]

May 13th
Early start today as we had an 8 am tour booked.
The bus service was running pretty prompt and we soon found ourselves waiting off to one side of the train station to be let in. At ten to eight we were cleared for entry along with a bunch of other tour people and early breakfasters.
The tour itself was very informative and I won't go into a lot of detail (take the tour if you want to know) but I will go over the basics.
We started at town square and were issued with an earpiece each before heading up to the castle with our tour guide Megan explaining various things and history behind things. We went into liberty square and up to the Haunted mansion. We went through the queue area and she explained a lot of the gravestones and elements to us. We rode the ride with an extra voice in our head pointing out various techniques and reasons behind the ride. After exiting we were shown where the "brides ring" was located and the whole "story" behind its origin. Taking us through the Tangled restroom area we headed backstage and were shown how some of the haunted mansion works. Very interesting is all I have to say. Upon returning to the park proper we were taken though Winnie the Pooh and rode with instuctions of things to watch for. After this we headed around into tomorrowland and rode Carousel of Progress with a full talk through each scene and things I had never even known or noticed. Our tour ended at this point and it was well worth the time spent doing it.
Lunch was well due at this point so what better place to go than Cosmic Rays Starlight cafe

After lunch we used one of our "free" FP's to ride 7 dwarves mine train and then went to our first regular FP of the day over at the Haunted Mansion.A lot of what was said on the tour really becomes apparent with re-rides and doesn't ruin it in the slightest.
Country bears was next up as the show was just starting as we walked past. We used our next "freebie" to ride ... 7 dwarves again and then spent a while sightseeing before retiring for the day.

 

[Mr Ferret 88]

May 14th
This is one of our "lost days" on our trip report !! I didn't write anything down in my notebook for today and tomorrow so using the FP's and our memory maker pictures I am able to piece together at least some of the day.
We returned to Animal Kingdom today and did Festival of the Lion King , Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safari on FP today . We also walked both Pangani forest trails and Maharaja jungle trek today. Also we re-rode Dinosaur. Food wise I had a giant cinnamon whirl from the take-out kiosk in Africa and Donna had a cheese danish both with iced coffee. The other thing we did today for sure was meeting Goofy and Pluto over by dinosaur.
I believe we had dinner at the Downtown Rainforest Cafe this evening. The food was good but the server (when he was there ) left a lot to be desired.

 

[Mr Ferret 88]

May 15th
Today we headed on over to EPCOT . I know for sure we did spaceship earth and figment but the rest is a bit hazy. I would assume we also did the Nemo ride but can neither confirm nor deny this.
We headed into world showcase at some point of the day and exited via the back door and took the stroll over to the boardwalk.We browsed the location and It looks a lovely resort area. we went back through EPCOT and at some point exited for the resort.
We did Downtown Disney this evening and tried Erin Mckenna's bakery NYC for cupcakes which were very nice indeed.

 

[Mr Ferret 88]

May 16
Today was Hollywood Studios and Star Wars Weekend.
Once in the park we headed straight to the back and Darth's mall. We joined the queue for Watto's grotto and about 45 minutes later saw us enter the shop. We both spent a good chunk of change in here and were pleased with the sizing options on the clothing ( much better than regular Disney).
To recover from this we got a bite and a drink from .... The Trolley Car Cafe ( shocking I know). We took this over to near the exit for Beauty and the beast as the seating was shaded and out of the way.
The art of Animation courtyard area was our next stop and we went into the meet and greet for the big cheese himself. I snuck a quick pic of Baymax but we didn't meet him as the queue seemed crazy long and he was off to re-charge very soon.
WE did some more shopping and wandering to see what we could and enjoy the atmosphere then decided to do Toy Story even though it was an hour or so wait. It had air con and that made it bearable. I finally managed to beat Mrs Ferret at something and even got a kitty in the process.
We decided to head back to the resort for a while as the crowds had grown crazy and the heat was intense. On the way out we grabbed a few pics of Boba Fett and also a carrot cake cookie from the writers stop for an afternoon snack.
Later that day we headed back on out. This time to the Magic Kingdom as it was open until early morning. First up was a meet and greet with everyone's favorite mermaid followed by a ride under the sea on a clam shell. Moseying on around we popped into It's a Small World just in time to see the clock go off.
Feeling peckish we stopped in at Pecos Bills for a bite to eat and just as we were exiting we saw the front of MSEP so we snagged a couple of spots right at the last possible place you can stand in Fronteirland and watched from there. It was a blast and as there was no one opposite we got a lot of attention from the cast.
Thunder mountain FP beckoned next and we watched (some of) Wishes from aboard a mine train .
After this we made our way over to the christmas shop in liberty square to wait up for our 10:45 FP with Mr and Mrs Boomer93(Friends from another foum) .We were spotted quite easily (can't imagine how) and we had a good chat before the late running of the parade. It was great to meet Diane and Bob and finally put a face (and accent) to the posts.I hope they enjoyed meeting and the parade as much as we did.And if we are ever passing through we will stop in (am sure y'all have coffee).
After it had all finished we parted ways and headed back into the park. Haunted Mansion called once again (it's much better in the dark

)and then we braved the insane standby queue for 7 dwarves. I wouldn't do this ride on standby again unless the times drastically change next trip.
We were now well past the witching hour so decided to call it a night (or morning) and headed off to bed. Not before posing in front of the castle one last time.

 

[Mr Ferret 88]

May 17th
After last nights shenanigans we had a late start today. We fired up the motor and rolled out up to Universal.
First up (for me)was a trip on Rip Ride Rock It whilst Donna waited below in the sunshine. As we had started late it was already lunchtime so we popped into Springfield and into the Krusty burger. Now conventional wisdom would be to get the signature dish here but since when have we been normal.
I went for the chicken waffle sandwich ( waffle top and bottom,fried chicken in the middle with lettuce and mayo .. and maple syrup) with tater tots on the side. Donna went for the interestingly named Chicken Thumbs (with tater tots).Both of us had the Buzz Cola (sugar free cherry cola).
Suitably refreshed we headed over to diagon alley and spent some more time sightseeing before joining the queue for Gringotts. The posted time was 1 hour but,knowing what the queue length is we got out of the queue after 20 minutes or so as there was no way we were getting to the inside section in an hour let alone on the ride.
To make up for this we went to Mr Fortesques ice cream shop once more and both had the peanut butter and strawberry flavour in a cone. This was just as nice as the other ones we had the other day.
We spent some more time browsing the park before exiting, picking up a bottle of pumpkin juice and bottle of Gilly water to try later, as the crowds had grown and the wait times were all insane. One Valencia orange Starbucks each and we were good for the trip back to finish packing.
Once that was done we boated over to Downtown and caught Pitch Perfect 2 over at the AMC.
Dinner was at EOS on the way back to the boat and we both went with the holiday turkey ( would be rude not to ).

 

[Mr Ferret 88]

May 18th
Sad day today as we said goodbye to the resort and motored over to the Virgin check in at Downtown. We got upstairs seats for the flight back and once we had our tickets and had waved bye to the luggage we wheeled over to EPCOT.
Our first ride of the day was Figment and it was a FP.We were the first FP people of the day and the "lab assistants" were very pleased to greet us. We had the entire ride to ourselves.
Next up was breakfast which we grabbed at sunshine seasons. We both grabbed a breakfast platter and apple crumble pie thingy. The platter was awesome (as usual ) and the pie was nice but a little heavy.
We had a FP for soaring next and we asked for and got the front row. Next up was Nemo the ride on standby and then on over to the World Showcase for a last wander and stop in Norway. I had the Troll horn and Donna had the Mousse Kiss (seems to be new on the menu). Both were very nice indeed.
We had one last Valencia orange from Starbucks before grabbing a last photo and exiting.
We buckled up for the last time and headed on up to the airport. With a tearful goodbye (to the hire car).We boarded the tallest escalator in the world and went through security.
We took the monorail straight over to the gate area and with some time to kill Donna had her nails done at the Xpress spa.
Soon enough it was time to board and we got back on to Pretty Woman for our flight back to the UK.
The flight was a little lumpy at points but not too bad overall. Movies were watched and food was consumed but due to lack of sleep I can't remember exact details.

 

[Mr Ferret 88]

May 19th
We touched down early am in the UK and got our bags. We had booked a room at the Yotel for a few hours and went there to relax and refresh a bit before our afternoon flight back to Guernsey. It is a nice "pod" style hotel and great for a short relax but a little small in size for an overnight stay in our opinion. We checked out of the hotel and checked in for our flight then headed straight through customs.
A few last minute presents were collected from duty free before we headed to Frankie and Benny's for a last holiday meal. After being promptly seated we sat there for an age with no server even saying hello. So we got up and walked out. Another couple also did the same as they had been sitting before we were shown in. YAY back to good old British service.
We grabbed a coffee and a sandwich from Costa instead and before we knew it we were boarding our flight back across the little pond to our waiting chauffeur (my dad) and the real world.
BOOO

Thanks for reading along and i hope y'all come back real soon