Trip number 12 - Disney World and Cape Coral! Day 4 - Epcot

Wed 9th

This morning we headed over to the Earl of Sandwich to get an early lunch, as there was limited parking we parked in Congress Park and then walked across. 

I’m pretty sure that we both had the Earls Club - mine without the tomato 

Up next we collected the car and headed over to Epcot where our first fast pass was for Test Track. 

For some reason we got sent to our row just before the car was loaded and so the system didn’t show us our car’s performance on the way round 

Next we had a fast pass for Mission Space, I don’t think we really needed it but we used it anyway. 

Then we went and did some shopping in mousegear; Rob got some new polo shirts and I got some new ears!

We used our third fast pass at Spaceship Earth, mainly so that we could look for a fourth! I’m not even sure anyone was in the queue at the time!

Afterward we headed to a kiosk and selected Soarin’ for our fourth fast pass for later on in the day (this is why we like Sept trips!) 

We decided not to visit the World Showcase today and instead headed back to the room for a rest. 

We watched some of our favourites on Home and Garden TV before getting ready for dinner. 

Once we returned to the park, we headed to Soarin’ where we were allocated the second row and once again I was banned (by Rob) from asking for a front row 

I checked a kiosk to see of there were any fast passes available for illuminations later and there were!

Our final table service credits were now to be used at Le Cellier. This was our second time eating here and the breads were just as good the second time around.

I had the mushroom fillet mignon and Rob had the rib eye which I am sure was bigger last time but at least Rob didn’t feel so full after eating it.

We both had a chocolatey dessert - I forget what it was called but it was yummy, although I did think the cappuccino dessert that I had last time was better…but it is no longer on the menu.

We wandered along to the Illuminations fast pass area and found a spot. Much less crowded and just a more relaxing environment - we still waited a while but we didn’t have to fight to keep our space which is always nice!

Trip number 12 - Disney World and Cape Coral! Day 3 Magic Kingdom and Sanaa

Tues 8th

Today we were headed to the Magic Kingdom, we arrived at around 10 am and after a leisurely wander into the park we decided to get an early lunch at Pecos Bills. 

Shortly after we headed across to Fantasyland to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train using our first fast pass. 

We then did a couple of our favourites in Tomorrowland - the people mover and the Carousel of Progress before riding Space Mountain with our second fast pass.

The ride was bumpy as normal and the slightly amazing part is that Rob caught a pair of sunglasses whilst on the ride. One of the other people on the ride managed to lose them along the way and somehow he caught them in the dark!

Our third fast pass was another favourite - Splash Mountain! 

After we headed to a kiosk to see what fast passes were available and selected Buzz Lightyear as our next choice. Rob continued the pattern of getting a much higher score than I did!

We then took a quick spin on the Tomorrowland Speedway which had a really short wait time. 

We also got 2 more fast passes this afternoon which were for The Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise. 

After that we headed back to the room to have a quick rest and get ready for dinner.

Tonight we were going back to Sanaa - which you may notice we tend to visit on each trip….sometimes more than once! 

Dinner was great as always, we had the bread service to start and then we both had butter chicken and spicy lamb with different rice choices. For dessert Rob had the trio and I had the chocolate mousse…which is delicious!

After dinner we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours. We arrived just as Wishes was ending which was a shame but we would see them another night.

We started off with another ride on the speedway - and bizarrely we actually waited longer this evening than we had during the day!

Up next we decided to ride Peter Pan as I hadn’t seen the new standby line and normally the wait is just too long. The posted wait was still something like 40 minutes but from memory I think we waited about 15 which wasn’t bad and the queue is actually not too bad now that they have added more theming.

As we were in the area we decided to take the opportunity to ride It’s a small world which I love and Rob does not like! 

Final ride of the night was Big Thunder Mountain, which is not actually one of my favourites but it is more fun in the dark!

We took a leisurely walk out of the park and back to the room.

Trip number 12 - Disney World and Cape Coral! Day 2 - Animal Kingdom and the Garden Grill

Mon 7th

This morning we had breakfast at Artists Palate which was super busy, we had to find a table in the turf club area as it was so packed! 

Afterwards we headed over to the Animal Kingdom; we had a fairly short visit here only riding the Safari and Expedition Everest. 

We had a 3rd fast pass for Kali River Rapids but it was a bit cloudy and so we decided we didn’t want to get wet. We did manage to get some soft serve ice cream along the way though!

Up next was a trip to Downtown Disney to collect the gift card included in our package. It took a little while as the information desk in World of Disney took what felt like forever to process it. 

While we were there I decided to try on a selection of ears to add to my collection.

We headed back to the room for a while, and we found a new tv show... tiny houses  We watched a few episodes before getting ready for the evening.

Tonight we were going to Epcot for dinner at the Garden Grill; I wasn’t entirely sure about the food but I wanted a character meal and Rob didn’t want a buffet so this was our only option. 

We had a quick ride on Spaceship Earth on the way in which was nice. 
I was actually pleasantly surprised by the food, we had the turkey and beef (neither of us wanted fish) and the various accompaniments were quite complimentary. 

Although we did find the goldfish crackers in the macaroni and cheese to be odd! 

We had great character interaction and saw all of the characters twice during our meal. Mickey was very impressed with Rob's shirt and magicbandit, and one of Chip n Dale was hilarious when they suggested that Rob had eaten too much food! 

We decided that we would skip illuminations for the night and catch it another time.

Trip number 12 - Disneyworld and Cape Coral! Day 1 - Hollywood Studios and Epcot

Sun 6th

We were up at around 7.30 this morning; we unpacked our bags and got ready. We had plans to visit 2 parks today – Hollywood Studios and Epcot. We arrived at Hollywood Studios at about 9.15, and then we checked in for the Frozen package. 

We had booked this after enjoying the Star Wars package back in June. We were allowed in fairly early and had some drinks and snacks before watching the parade, I have to say I preferred the Star Wars parade as the Frozen one was quite short but nice if you had kids – I was more interested in the fireworks viewing later but decided to enjoy the treats.

We left the park and walked to Epcot, where I met Alice as we reached the UK. We took a leisurely walk around the World Showcase and watched a few shows along the way – including the Canadian lumberjacks which was quite entertaining.

We had a lunch reservation at Teppan Edo; this was our first time at this restaurant. Rob and I both had Steak and Chicken, we quite enjoyed the ‘show’ and the food was really good - much better than I was expecting! I had read several reviews about the portions being too small but I actually thought we got quite a good amount of food and I didn’t feel stuffed after our meal which was nice.

We took the boat back to Hollywood Studios to collect the car, and we got back to our room just as it started raining heavily. It was a fairly typical afternoon storm so we watched TV for a little while before heading back to Hollywood Studios for the evening. 

We had 3 fast passes booked – Toy Story, Star Tours and Tower of Terror – we didn’t manage to fit Rock n Roller Coaster in unfortunately. 

We did a little bit of shopping (my boss wanted a Pandora charm for his daughter) and there was some more light rain which was a shame as it meant the dessert party was moved inside.

The location was the old Disney Junior attraction (I think) which was slightly odd but there was a good selection of desserts and it was nice to be out of the rain. 

We stayed inside until the fireworks were due to start and then headed out – it was still raining so I got a poncho and we headed to the viewing area. As there were no tables it felt more spacious than normal, the fireworks were really impressive and it was much more enjoyable not having to wait in the crowd for ages.