Disney Sept 13 Part 1

We were originally planning one Disney trip this year – a December trip which we would take with Rob’s parents staying at Saratoga Springs in a Tree House villa.

However, last year we found out about a discounted trip to WDW available through a club at work and so we registered our interest.

 

Whilst on our trip to Las Vegas we got a phone call asking us if we were still interested and somehow we had booked an extra trip whilst away! This time we would be in a studio at Saratoga Springs...

So, onto the trip!

31^st August

We were flying out on a Sunday this time and so did all of our holiday prep on a weekend day for a change. We dropped the dog off at kennels, had some lunch and then around 3pm we were picked up by our friend to take us to Gatwick (we are returning the favour for them next month!)

It took a little longer than expected due to some traffic but we arrived at Gatwick around 6. We headed into the terminal to do twilight check-in and drop off our checked luggage.

Then it was over to the Premier Inn to check in. We had stayed here in February and it was still a pleasant experience. Soon it was time for dinner – the Premier Inn was apparently booked up for hours so we went to the terminal and ate at an oddly themed restaurant called Joe’s Kitchen.

It was nice enough and reasonably priced. Then we headed off to bed for the night.

1^st September

Thanks to twilight check-in we had a leisurely start to the morning. We headed through security and then got some breakfast at Frankie and Benny’s. A little wander around the shops and then it was time to head to the gate.

We were a little late boarding – apparently some cargo had needed rearranging – really?! The flight itself was uninteresting, the food was fine and the time passed reasonably quickly.

We arrived a little late at Orlando International but I think in the end that wasn’t too bad. We seemed to be the only flight in the arrivals hall and so when we got off the queue for immigration wasn’t too bad.

I had selected seats near the front of economy and thankfully this worked quite well. We got off the plane relatively fast and managed to collect our bags and hire car within an hour of landing.

Around 25 minutes later and we had arrived at Saratoga Springs. We checked in and took our bags to the room.

 

 

We took a quick walk to get our refillable mugs and then we were off to get sandwiches from the Earl of Sandwich.

We walked to the boat dock only to find that for some reason the boat wasn’t running so we took the bus to Downtown Disney.

We arrived and headed straight to the Earl as we were really hungry! Once we had our sandwiches we felt a little better although by this point we were getting tired.

We quickly collected our photopass plus card and then headed back to the bus stop. For some reason the traffic was crazy this evening and it took us about 30 mins on the bus ride back!

This was enough to put us off the buses for the rest of our trip (although I must admit we don’t really like them anyway!)

We got back to our room and immediately as we entered we felt like there was something different about the room but for a few seconds we couldn’t work out why.

We then realised that 2 gift baskets had appeared on the side! Our friend Jennifer had sent them to us as birthday gifts (our birthdays had been earlier in the year but she told us the gifts would be a surprise!)

 

 

 

So we had a quick look at the baskets, sent Jennifer a message to say thanks and then headed for bed at 9.30!

2^nd September

We managed to stay asleep until almost 8 this morning!

Then we headed across to Artist’s Palette for breakfast. We popped our drinks back to the room and then we headed off to the Magic Kingdom. As we were in the car we parked at the TTC and then rode the ferryboat across the Seven Seas Lagoon.

Almost immediately we entered the park we saw Mary Poppins so I decided to meet her – I forgot to get her autograph though...would need to do that later in the trip.

(The gift basket had included an autograph book and so I finally had an excuse to collect autographs!)

 

 

 

As we had arrived in the park fairly late we started off with a wander around Tomorrowland. We picked up a fastpass for Space Mountain then took a ride on the Peoplemover followed by a whirl on the Carousel of Progress J

We then saw Stitch so I grabbed a photo and got my first autograph!

 

We had a quick ride on Space Mountain and then it was time to leave as we were planning on going to a Rodeo this afternoon.

As it turned out the Rodeo was a bit further away than we had thought. As a result we arrived about an hour after it had started – but the entry charge was only $10 each.

The rodeo was quite fun – lots of different activities including bull riding and some very fast horses! About an hour into the rodeo a mega storm arrived so we had to abandon the bleachers and stand really close to the fence to stay dry!

 

 

 

 

Once the rodeo was over we headed back to Disney. The rain had stopped as soon as it arrived (as it standard) although there was a little rain on the way back.

The plan for this evening was to head to the Boardwalk to have dinner at ESPN Club. For some reasons they don’t take advance reservations but as it turned out we really didn’t need them....we arrived and were seated immediately and the place seemed very empty!

Dinner was way too much food – and I took half of my dessert in a to-go box as I didn’t want to waste it!

We were still quite tired so we headed back and had an early night.

3^rd September

This morning we headed over to Hollywood Studios. As we had a lunch reservation we decided to skip breakfast and grab a little snack. When we arrived Toy Story Mania was broken down but we got a fastpass for later anyway.

We decided to head towards Star Tours and on the way we saw Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater so we got the photopass lady to take a few pictures.

The line for Star Tours was non existent as would be the theme for this morning as the park was extremely quiet! I was the spy on the ride.....which was the first time either of us had been picked.

 

 

 

 

Decided to head over to Tower of Terror and again we had a very short wait. We then decided to have a little rest and get a frozen lemonade J

I had never seen the Indiana Jones show so we decided to do that this morning. After it finished a short but heavy rain storm came over, we hid out in a shop for a few minutes and then ventured back out. We were waiting for our reservation at Sci Fi Diner.

We checked in and were seated a few minutes later. I always hear mixed reviews of this restaurant but we really liked it. I had a sandwich and cucumber salad so much less food than if I had fries and managed to get a fruit salad for dessert! I did have the milkshake for my drink though so I didn’t exactly miss out J

As we were leaving we decided to ask how much it would cost to upgrade our tickets to annual passes – we are coming back in December and had heard that the price can vary. With our DVC discount we were quoted $130 each to upgrade so we went ahead and changed our tickets.

We were heading back to the room for a rest and when we arrived our keys no longer worked. I was half expecting this as we had just done the upgrade. A quick trip to the Carriage house and a slightly confused cast member managed to fix our keys with the help of a supervisor.

It was all sorted fairly quickly and was just a minor annoyance as we now had to walk back to the room to get our mugs so that we could walk back across to get drinks!

We had a little rest in the room and then headed to the Magic Kingdom for a little while in the evening. We took a quick trip around on the railroad and got off at New Fantasyland.

We took advantage of the fact that Dumbo now doesn’t have such crazy lines to take a quick ride. Then we had a go on one of the new rides – the Little Mermaid.

We decided to watch the fireworks from Fantasyland – it’s different than from Main Street but much less crowded and you feel like you are in the middle of the display.

After the fireworks we headed off back to the room.