WDW - Here we come.....

[grovesie]

The time has nearly arrived for our much anticipated return to WDW.

We get collected tomorrow at 09:00 and head off towards Gatwick South Terminal. Our flight departs at 13:00 so enough time to take it easy, eat and shop. We do not land until 18:30 US time. At present they are 4 hours ahead as their clocks changed at the beginning of the month.

We do not plan to do much when we arrive. a bite to eat and bit of hotel exploring and that will probably be about it. The real fun begins the following day when we hit Animal Kingdom.

I will update you as I go along

Grovesie

[twentythingamabobs]

I hope you have a brilliant time Grovesie! Hopefully you will let us all know how it was.

[ilovemainstxxx]

Bet your so excited now , once again have a wonderful time , safe journey and carnt wait to here all about it ...

[grovesie]

Well its 6pm and about 30 c. The sun is shining and the parks are heaving. Having a great time and.we have stuck.to the earlier plans. For.those comming here with frozen fan, there's a shop selling only frozen merch. Gotta go just been called.to dinner.

[grovesie]

Have a wonderful trip!
I`ll e curious for your pictures or tips you might have. We`ll go in July. And we are first timers there! So a bit nerveous....
I`d be interested to know. Did you download the app for Fp and things?
                                      And how did it work in the parks (after you`re back of cours).
                                      Is it easier on an iPad or will the phone be all right?

Enjoy!

Due to the amount of people in the parks we could not get a fair comparrison as the wifi was prro, but if anything we found the Apple devices better

Hope this helps

[twentythingamabobs]

Hi Grovesie,

Hope your trip was amazing!! Are you planning on doing a trip report?

[DisneyRon]

Hi Grovesie, how was your trip. Will you be doing a trip report?

Mine is coming up in 12 days, so any last minute info would be most welcome.

[grovesie]

Hi Grovesie, how was your trip. Will you be doing a trip report?

Mine is coming up in 12 days, so any last minute info would be most welcome.

I will do a picture trip report of the 4 parks. I am still going through the 5ooo+ photos.

My advice would be:
1 - Take your time soak up the atmosphere.
2 - Try to do your fast pass plus early in the day. You can book more passes once you have used your first three choices
3 - Splash Mountain, Exhibition Everest, 7 dwarfs mine train, Safari, Mickey's Philharmonic, Space mountain, Areosmith, Captain Eo and Test Track are a must
4 - Try to see their dreams, electric parade and last fire work show. Their dreams is a bit different to DLP, the projections are first and the fire works follow after 5 minutes.
5 - You are going out side school breaks, so should be a lot quieter than when we went
6 - The safari in Animal Kingdom got better for us eachtime we went. The best ride was at 6pm
7 - Keep hydrated and keep sun lotion topped up. We took empty bottles to breakfast and filled with water for the parks.
8 - If your staying at Port Orleans then prepared to be amazed at the size. We stayed in Aligator Bayou Lodge 24. There are 4 bus stops just serving the resort, and we were nicely placed for the West Depot. From our room to the restaurant it was over 700 steps.We found the food to be very good too.
9 - Not sure if Epcot will still have the flower show, but very very good. Epcot was out favourite .  There are soooo many little areas in the World Show case take your time there
10 - Are you on a dining plan? We were on the dining plan( 1 snack, 1 quick service and 1 table service per night of stay) We used the snack voucher for a breakfast pastry, Quickservice for lunch and the other for dinner. How diner works with the table service voucher you can choose and main course and any desert from the menu. You will get a soft drink too. The soft drink gets refilled once finished for free. In Florida Rainforest, T rex , Planet Hollywood all accept the dining plan
11 - Places we liked to eat - 50's Prime time( Chicken pot pie), Yak and Yeti,  and Rain forest Were amongst our favourite places.
12 - Downtown Disney( Disney Village) - This is HUGE. Spend several evenings there if you can.Some hotels offer a boat taxi from the hotel to Downtown, The Port Orleans does,  or from the hotel to some of the parks.
13 - Have a ride on the Mono rail system. Goes from Magic Kingdom to Epcot, a little bit of fun
14 - IF you are  on a dining plan it is quite easy to loose track of what's been used especially if there are a few in your party. When using the plan confirm to the cashier what you want to use. The receipt given to you will show what you have used and what you have remaining.
15 - All bags are search upon entering each park, have your bag open before being searched this will speed up your entry

If you have any other questions please ask and I will try to answer

ABOVE ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME.

Grovesie

ps - I will love to hear how you found it and see some of your photos

[DisneyRon]

1 - Certainly my intention to do so. I'll try and create a "live" trip report like I did for my last DLP visit, making an update every day of my stay.
2 - Most of my fastpasses are early in the day, though EasyWDW recommends not doing that exclusively, as you should be able to get a fair number of rides in during early morning, and having FPs during the busiest time of day might be a better idea. I'll see what happens, I've got a fair bit set up regardless.
3 - Not sure if Space Mountain and Aerosmith will happen, I'm not really a fan of coasters. And EO was certainly planned, but Disney decided 2 weeks ago that Captain EO would be closed during my visit, nullifying my fastpasses for it.
4 - I've got a FastPass for one night of Wishes, and I'll certainly try and see the ending shows at the 3 parks that host one, and the parades are certainly on the plan.
5 - I hope so, estimated crowd levels are 4/10, 5/10 on EasyWDW, which should be ok, but not super quiet.
6 - Safari is on the plan, will see about getting one later in the day as well. Though on the days I scheduled for Animal Kingdom I usually have a Dinner Reservation at the Animal Kingdom Lodge quite early, so we'll see if I can fit that in.
7 - My backpack has a 3 liter water tank built in (it's a Camelback), so that should be fine to start of with, and I've got a nice high SPF sunmilk to bring along.
8 - Sounds like you stayed at Port Orleans Riverside, I'll be staying at Port Orleans French Quarter, which is just south of there (5 minutes walk) and it is the smallest resort on site.
9 - Garden and Flower Festival is still going on, and I've got 3 days of Epcot scheduled. Should have plenty of time to explore the World Showcase and the Topiaries.
10 - I'm on the Deluxe Dining Plan, which means that I'll be able to get appetizers, entrées and dessert at every meal except breakfast. (3 dining plan points (table or quick service, no distinction) and 2 snack points per day). I have a ton of dinner reservations made (20 restaurant reservations over 12 days, including a fair number for Signature restaurants and a good number of Character Dining things).
11 - I've got a reservation for Yak and Yeti, might pick up breakfast at the Rainforest Café one morning, not sure if I'll visit Planet Hollywood.
12 - Good to know it's huge, I should be able to take the boat from PO French Quarter to Downtown, and will certainly try to visit it a few times.
13 - The Monorail is certainly on the plan, if only to go from the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary Resort, because I have a dinner reservation at the California Grill (and the intention of watching Wishes and Fireworks from there the same night).
14 - That's a useful tip, I'll keep it in mind, I'll run short of Dining Plan point if I do quick service every morning, so if the snack offerings are good enough I'll substitute a few of those for a few morning so it all works out.
15 - Thank you, that's useful to know, I wonder how they'll react to the 3 liter hydration pack stowed into the back of my backpack (which should be full of cold water every morning).

Very cool, looking forward to your trip report.
I wonder how many photos I'll end up with, as I'll be going alone (not as many photo ops), but do have a Memory Maker Photopass, so plenty of opportunities that way.

[daddyof2]

5000+ photos? Wow, looking forward to seeing some of those. I'm thinking of WDW 2017 or 2018 already...

[gavinng]

Yeah. We're planning a WDW 2017 or 2018 as well. Also a DLA in 2017 or 2018.

[grovesie]

Some of our photos of Animal Kingdom















Sorry for the size, I do not know how to reduce them, other parks to follow

[grovesie]

 Epcot this time, probably our favourite park.




























Again sorry for the size of photos, I know how to re size now but it will take too long to resize each one.

[grovesie]

Hollywood Studios. The smallest of the parks.

[grovesie]

The last park Magic Kingdom