8 Amazing Things That Happened on Our First Day in Disneyland

So I know that I usually live blog my Disney trips, but today I didn’t feel like it was right. We took a pretty chilled out approach to the day and I felt like despite it being an incredible day for us, it probably wouldn’t read as well for others, so instead I thought I’d try a slightly different format to tell you some of the AMAZING parts of our first day in the happiest place on earth.

1. We had a whole boat to ourselves on Pirates of the Caribbean

This is my traditional first ride of any trip, and as is fairly normal first thing in the morning, it was a walk-on. But then, to our great surprise, we got into the front row of the boat and realised that no one else had been put into our boat with us, so we got to do the whole ride without other people! I joked that this was a sign of amazing things to come, but little did I know how true this would be..

2. Mickey Celebration Cupcake

Sarah bought a cupcake for the ‘gram, which turned out to be this incredible chocolate chip cookie/cupcake kinda combo which was super yum and quite probably the best Disney cupcake I’ve ever eaten. 11/10 would eat again every day of my life.

3. ‘ Share Your Ears’ Cheeseburger

On the subject of food, we also split the 3-piece Mickey-shaped burger for lunch over at Smokejumpers Grill in DCA and it was so good! Definitely a great option to split between two people.

4. I got to see Pixar Pier for the first time

As it’s been almost 2 years since I was last at Disneyland, there were a lot of changes for me to experience, the main one being Pixar Pier. We only spent a brief amount of time on it today, but I loved everything I saw and I can’t wait to take more of it in over the next few days.

5. Mission Breakout!

I have also never been on the new(ish) Guardians of the Galaxy ride that took over from Tower of Terror in DCA, and so I got to experience that for the first time and I LOVED IT. I have a real love/hate but mainly hate relationship with ToT but Mission Breakout blew my socks off and I thought it was incredible – I can’t wait to do it a few more times this trip!

6. We saw the Disneyland cats

I had no idea this was a thing but apparently the pair of cats that seem to live in DCA are a common sight for guests – who know right? They were really cute though and clearly just wanted some piece and quiet away from screaming guests. Don’t blame them..

7. Tow Maters

I normally skip the smaller ‘kiddy’ rides but we decided to go on the Tow Mater tractor ride and it was actually such a blast!

8. I finally met Mickey as Steamboat Willie

My dream meet for such a long time now has been to meet Mickey as Steamboat Willie, and completely by fluke today it happened and I am still not over it. This meet takes place in Meet Mickey in his house in Toontown, but it’s totally down to chance as to whether he’s on set for Steamboat Willie, or if he’s doing others things that day, and I’ve only ever seen him in his traditional tails and red trousers, but this knocked me for six and I am SO HAPPY.

It’s just been a truly unbelievable first day of what I know will be the most magical trip!

April 11, 2019Lottie 1 Comment

Walt Disney World Days 5 and 6

I’m combining two days into one post purely because I didn’t do too much myself!

After a lie in as a reward for the 10K the previous day, we headed to Animal Kingdom and went straight to our first fastpass at Dinosaur, and from there we went to meet Chip and Dale in their Dinobash outfits which were super cute!! It was pretty much lunchtime at this point so we went over to Satuli Canteen to eat (because I can’t live without cheeseburger pods).

After lunch, Chelsea and Sammy had a Flights of Passage fastpass so Sarah and I just wandered around Africa taking photos while they were in Pandora, and then we went back to Satuli Canteen to meet up with David, Megan and Leah quickly. I was planning on leaving after that to go back to the hotel, but our little meet took us up until our Expedition Everest fastpass so I figured it would be rude not to ride!

I spent the rest of the afternoon resting at the resort in preparation for the marathon, with the exception of going to Disney Springs for dinner at Blaze, and then got myself an early night for the next morning..

I won’t go into all the hairy details of the marathon just yet, but I DID IT!!!

It was hot, it was hard work, but it is over now and I’m so happy. I went straight back to the resort afterwards for a good soak in the bath and some feet up time, and then we drove over to Wilderness Lodge for dinner at Artist Point. It was the new Storybook Dining experience which is Snow White themed, and although the setting and characters were very cute, the meal itself was a little disappointing – although I hardly had the energy to eat anyway.

Matthew and I went back to Polynesian while the girls spent the rest of the evening in Magic Kingdom, but we did watch Happily Ever After from the beach at the resort, and I think I was asleep before 9.30pm..

My next post will be a more detailed look into the marathon, but we’re about to set sail on the Disney Dream so I don’t know if that will be posted tomorrow or a few days time!

January 15, 2019Lottie 1 Comment

Walt Disney World Day 4

Friday kicked off with the first RunDisney event of our trip: the Walt Disney World 10K. For me this technically counted as a warmup for the marathon, but it was Chelsea and Sammy’s first RunDisney event and it was really great. We stopped to meet Ralph and Vanellope, Chip and Dale as the Rescue Rangers and Jiminy Cricket, and I’m so proud of how they did and happy with how they paced me.

After we’d showered, changed etc, we went back to Epcot in time for our lunch reservation at Teppan Edo. It was my fourth time eating there and it never fails to disappoint! After eating, we went round to Norway to meet Anna and Elsa and then used our fastpass for Frozen Ever After. When we came out from there, we saw that Soarin had a 25 minute wait time so we bombed over there, but actually I don’t think we waited more than 15 minutes to ride. We then hit some Epcot walls, then went to Starbucks and Club Cool for drinks, then went to meet Baymax and Joy and Sadness, and then went back to Mexico to meet Donald.

With our little legs all feeling the long day, we finished up the day in Epcot at Mouse Gear before catching the monorail back to the resort for an early night and the best nights sleep of the trip so far!

January 13, 2019Lottie 2 Comments

Walt Disney World Day 3

So I’m now running a day behind, but hey ho!

Thursday morning we headed into Magic Kingdom around about opening time, and as we walked into the park Chip and Dale were just heading out to meet, so as they had no queue yet, we were basically the first people to meet them, then we walked towards Frontierland and rode Big Thunder Mountain, then picked up some breakfast and hit up Its A Small World.

From there, we went back to Main Street so Chelsea could get a Starbucks and Sarah could get a balloon, and then visited the purple wall for some quick pics for the ‘gram. Chelsea and Sammy had fastpasses for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so they went off to do that and Sarah and I just hung out at the castle which is where they met us and we went over to Space Mountain for another fastpass.

A quick snack and some shops later, Sarah left to nip back to the hotel for a jacket and the rest of us had a quick wander through Fantasyland and then rode Big Thunder one more time, this time with a fastpass, and then left the park, meeting Sarah on the way out, and got the bus to Art of Animation.

The bus to AoA broke down, so we ended up having to be transferred onto a new bus, but it didn’t take too long for that to be sorted! We had some food at the resort and an explore, and then we got an Uber to ESPN Wide World of Sports for the RunDisney expo where we picked up our race bibs and shopped the merch for the race weekend, then grabbed another Uber to Hollywood Studios, which is where we finished up the night watching Fantasmic before going back to get a good nights sleep in before the 10k!

January 12, 2019Lottie 1 Comment

Walt Disney World Day 2

This morning we got up bright and early so that we could get to Animal Kingdom. Due to not booking our fastpasses at the 60 day mark, we didn’t have a Flights of Passage fastpass, so we were attempting to rope drop it, and it was actually a success! Although the queue looked scary as we walked all the way down to Harambe Theater, we hardly stopped moving and actually did the ride in under an hour – plus as I’ve only ever done fastpass for it before, it meant I got to see the cool inside queue for the first time.

Once that was done, we could relax a little and got breakfast at Creature Comforts, then we took some photos at the Tree of Life before going to meet Russell and Dug. It was possibly the cutest meet I’ve ever had, and as it was my first time meeting Dug I was really excited, especially as they loved our Wilderness Explorer outfits. After that, we went over to Expedition Everest and rode it twice, once as single riders and the second time using our fastpasses, then we wandered around for a bit before settling on having lunch at Yak and Yeti (QS).

We ended up sitting at Yak and Yeti for quite a while, just enjoying some shade and time off our feet, and then from there we went over to Africa for Festival of the Lion King, then went back to Dinoland and practically walked onto Primeval Whirl, then met Donald in his Dinobash outfit, before going to meet Micky and Minnie, which we had fastpasses for.

After that, we happened across Pocahontas meeting near the Tree of Life while we were heading back to Africa, so we stopped to meet her, and then went on to our final fastpass of the day at Kilimanjaro Safaris – although our ride was somewhat delayed due to the animals blocking vehicles on the roads – but we did get to see the lions really clearly and hear them roar!

Once we were off the ride, we had a mad dash back to the hotel to meet Chelsea who had arrived while we were being held up by rhinos or whatever was delaying the safari! We headed into Magic Kingdom for some dinner, a quick spin on the Peoplemover and a look through some shops, and then got the monorail back to the resort ready for some rest and recovery!

Tomorrow we’ll be hitting the RunDisney Health and Fitness Expo as well as the parks, so stay tuned!

January 10, 2019Lottie Leave a comment

Walt Disney World Day 1

Well gang, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve blogged a Disney trip, but would you believe in the last few months I’ve done two trips that I haven’t blogged? So unlike me, right?

Well, I’m now back in Walt Disney World for some magic and some running, and I’ll be back blogging the whole thing, starting with today..

So we’re staying at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, our DVC home, which meant that this morning was far more chilled out as we only had to hop on the monorail to get to Magic Kingdom, and did security at the resort so didn’t have to queue at the park. There had been an early morning magic event on so the park was already a little busy, but we went down to the castle for the welcome show, and then Sammy wanted some breakfast so she grabbed a Mickey waffle at Sleepy Hollow, took a trip to the Tangled toilets and then went for our first ride of the day: Pirates of the Caribbean.

On our way from there to Fantasyland, we met Mary Poppins and the ugly stepsisters, and then met Rapunzel and Tiana in Princess Fairytale Hall, and then headed for Haunted Mansion for our first fastpass of the day. By that time it was pretty much lunch time – Sarah and I hadn’t eaten breakfast either – and we ended up going to Pinocchio Village Haus so that we knew there would be vegetarian options for Sammy.

After lunch, we had to spend a little bit of time at guest services sorting out our annual pass magic bands, and then headed back to the castle to watch Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire and from there grabbed a parade spot. Once the parade was over, we grabbed a quick Starbucks, and then did our second fastpass of the day, Buzz, and also did a lap of the TTA Peoplemover.

The My Disney Experience app was telling us that Big Thunder Mountain had a 35 minute wait time, so we headed over there, but unfortunately so did everyone else in the park.. The cast member said the queue was at least 70 minutes when we got there, so that was a no, and instead Matthew and I got in the queue for Splash Mountain, but after a while we realised that the queue was going to be too long and we would miss our Seven Dwarfs Mine Train fastpass, so instead we grabbed a Mickey waffle and headed over to Fantasyland.

I’ve never done Mine Train in the dark before and it was so good!! Because most people were camping out for Happily Ever After by this point, the queue for Big Thunder had dropped to only 20 minutes, so we practically ran back to Frontierland, and had the best time riding the back of the wildest ride in the wilderness. With a little bit of time before HEA, we got some food at Cosmic Ray’s, and then got our spot to watch the show – despite showing up just as it was starting, we got a decent view!

On our way out of the park we hit the shops and Main Street Confectionary, and then we decided to forgo the monorail in favour of the ferry back to Poly, and the Electrical Water Pageant was going so we got to see a lot of that while we were waiting which was really cool because I never stop to watch it when I’m leaving Magic Kingdom.

We’ve got day 1 feet right now, so we got back into quickly and are just spending the evening chilling in the room ready for Animal Kingdom tomorrow!

January 9, 2019Lottie 4 Comments

Disneyland Paris Day 4

This post is coming a day late because Friday was such a long day and I needed yesterday to recover, but anyways!

This morning I left Matthew behind in the hotel (he had some work related stuff to sort out, I’m not just a mean person) and headed into the parks for early magic hours, bypassing the big queue of Disney hotel guests by using the designated annual pass holder entrance! As I had limited time before going back to meet Matthew, I decided that I only wanted to queue to meet Donald, and then spent the rest of the time taking advantage of the park being much quieter for taking photos.

At 10am, when the park opened to the rest of the guests, I left to head back to the hotel so that we could finish packing and check out – I had planned to get the shuttle bus but didn’t check the timetables so rather than waiting 25 mins for the next bus I walked back, which did only take 20 minutes so I was pretty impressed with that, plus the weather was lovely!

Once we’d checked out, we headed back to the park with our cases, leaving them at guest storage by the park entrance for the day, and then we went back into the Disneyland park. We started with Pirates of the Caribbean, which was basically a walk on, and then walked through Fantasyland, grabbing lunch at Bella Notte, and then went for one last ride on Star Tours before switching parks and going to Studios.

There, we walked onto Flying Carpets, and then also walked onto Studio Tram Tour before doing Tower of Terror for one last time.

We then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring, as Matthew has never been to any of the Disney hotels, so we walked through Disney Village and did a lap of the lake, stopping to poke around Sequoia Lodge and Newport Bay Club, where we sat and had a drink and a snack in one of the lounges, before finally going back to collect our cases from storage and head back to the airport.

It might be a see ya real soon moment, but now we’re annual pass holders I think soon will probably be very soon, DLP!

September 16, 2018Lottie 4 Comments

Disneyland Paris Day 3

After what I think is possibly the worst nights sleep I’ve had all year, I woke up feeling rough as hell and am definitely coming down with something. Fab. It was also raining here, so we opted for more time in bed and didn’t head into the parks til about midday, stopping off at Disney Village first so that Matthew could buy a hoodie because it was a LOT colder today.

First ride of the day was Star Tours, then Matthew did Hyperspace Mountain (I didn’t feel up to it today) and then we walked into Fantasyland where I met Suzy and Perla. The rain had clearly scared off some people so we then did It’s a Small World and Dumbo with minimal wait times and then wandered through Adventureland and Skull Cove a little before going to Big Thunder Mountain.

Our plan was to get a fastpass for later, but also standby it straight away, but when we got to the fastpass booth a cast member asked if we wanted to play a guessing game, whereby if we won, we would each get a fastpass with no time restriction. Well we actually did win, but not only did he give us the unrestricted fastpass but also an extra fastpass each, so we actually rode BTM twice in a row then, and decided to come back later in the evening to use our final one.

We then decided to switch parks, heading into Studios and doing Crush’s Coaster, but after that we were so hungry we couldn’t queue for anything else, so went back into Disney Village and had dinner at Rainforest Cafe before going back into Disneyland. Despite only being 7pm at this point, most people were heading out of the park rather than in, so it was fairly quiet in there!

We did our last BTM fastpass, then walked the long way round into Discoveryland for a ride on Buzz, and then took up a spot to watch Illuminations just outside of Discoveryland.

Tomorrow we leave in the evening, so we have most of the day in the parks to enjoy before we say ‘see ya real soon!’

September 14, 2018Lottie Leave a comment

Disneyland Paris Day 2

This morning’s plan was to start off at Walt Disney Studios Park, and we arrived just as it was opening, having decided to sleep through magic hours. We headed straight for Crush’s Coaster, which had its typical hour wait but we did it nonetheless – in fact, midway through the queue we had the dreaded break down announcement, but it cleared up quickly and we waited no more than 10 mins more than the displayed wait time!

After Crush, we went to grab fastpasses for Ratatouille, and then decided that was it was well past 11am that we’d skip breakfast, do one more ride and then have lunch. The ride in question was one of my favourites, although it seems massively underrated: RC Racer. I was pretty amazed at how busy the park was, as when we walked by Studio Tram Tour the queue was actually out of its designated area and going down past Tower of Terror!

For lunch I had the Spider-Man burger, which was actually really good and so big I couldn’t finish it, and then we went back to Ratatouille for our fastpass time. After that we had planned to swing by Tower of Terror to grab fastpasses for later on, but after we’d got them we saw the wait time was only 15 mins so decided to standby it there and then. Matthew then went off to do Rock’n’Roller Coaster, which is one I tend to skip these days (that made me sound super old but oh well) and I just sat outside and waited because that only had a 10 minute wait time.

We then decided to head out from Studios, and walked into Disney Village – via World of Disney to buy some pins – and grabbed a Starbucks and a sit down before going into Disneyland. We did Pirates of the Caribbean with a relatively short wait time, and then walked through Fantasyland, and by the time we’d got to It’s a Small World it was only a few minutes until Stars on Parade was due to start. I didn’t get the best spot, but did the trick of waiting by the rope that was still due to close, so I was only one person back and she stayed crouched with her kid so I had a fairly decent view. Still not Magic on Parade though, amirite?

As I saw the parade was ending, we made a run for it before the rest of the crowd left, and took as many back ways as possible to get ourselves back down Main Street and out of the park while the parade will had everyone’s attention! We hopped on our hotel shuttle, but stayed one more stop to get off nearer Val d’Europe, where we then spent a few hours exploring (I’ve never been before!) and finished up buying some bits from the supermarket to take back to our room for dinner, to give out feet a rest from the parks as mine were about to drop off!

We still have two days in the magic so there’s plenty more fun to be had!

September 13, 2018Lottie 1 Comment

Disneyland Paris Day 1

Well gang, it’s been a little while but I am safely back on magical property! It’s been pretty much a year since I was last in Disneyland Paris, and being a fairly spontaneous trip I was super excited to get back, plus this will also be the longest DLP trip I’ve been on since I was a child, if not ever!

We’re staying offsite, so started the morning by getting the bus in, which was pretty exciting for me because I’m so used to walking in through Disney Village, rather than through the gates, so that was cool. We were both getting annual passes, so we had to go to the ticket booth first and then could skip the queue of people waiting for park opening and take advantage of what was left of early magic hours! We did Hyperspace Mountain and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, then got to the annual pass office for when it opened at 10am to sort out passes out before getting breakfast at Market House Deli.

Fuelled up, we visited the dragon under the castle before going into Fantasyland and starting off with a teacup ride.

After teacups, we hit Its a Small World, Le Pays des Contes de Fees and Casey Jr Train all pretty much as walk ons, and then walked into Adventureland and queued for Pirates of the Caribbeans, which was surprisingly marked as an hour wait time, although we only waited about half an hour. It was then lunch time, so we went to Restaurant Hakuna Matata for chicken strips.

Right after lunch, we figured it wasn’t the best idea to go straight on a fast ride, but we got fastpass for Bug Thunder Mountain and then decided that as the wait time was 45 minutes we might as well get in line anyway – I’d forgotten how much I like BTM in Paris, so I have no issues at all doing it twice in a day! From there we went back to Fantasyland and queued to meet Mickey Mouse, and then as our little feet are somewhat out of practice from Disney parks, we went to the Disneyland Hotel to have a sit down and a drink in Cafe Fantasia.

Rested and recovered, we were back in the park and on our way back to Big Thunder Mountain for our fastpass slot – annoyingly it was at the same time as Stars on Parade so we’ll save parade for another day! After that, we did Indiana Jones as practically a walk on (does anyone else sometimes forget this ride exists?) and then went back out of the park to wander round the shops in Disney Village, and grabbed an Earl of Sandwich for dinner. We decided to get the shuttle back to our hotel inside of going back for Illuminations as Matthew was developing some pretty nasty blisters and we’ve still got three more days to get everything done, so we’re in no rush to squeeze it all in!

Tomorrow we’ll be starting off in Walt Disney Studios and seeing where the day takes us!

September 12, 2018Lottie 6 Comments

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Days 14 and 15

As it was our last full day here, we were up bright and early for a breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace and as the park seemed to be pretty quiet, we went straight from there to Big Thunder Mountain – which was practically a walk-on – before going to our first fastpass of the day, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

On somewhat of a rollercoaster trail, after that we decided to go standby for Space Mountain, which claimed to be a 55 minute wait, but I definitely don’t think we waited that long, although I may have been too distracted by playing the video games that they have in the queue to notice the time go by! For some unknown reason, some of the lights were on, which meant we could see some of the crazy track, but not all of it – I’d love to ride it with all the lights on just one time, but I’ll settle for that for now! To kill a bit of time before our next fastpass, we hopped on the TTA Peoplemover for a quick spin around Tomorrowland, and then made our way back across to Liberty Square for Haunted Mansion.

Once we’d said farewell to the grim grinning ghosts, we walked round to Frontierland station and rode the train back round to Main Street USA. Lunch was on the cards now so we went to Pinocchio’s Village Haus, and then also grabbed ice cream from Plaza Ice Cream Parlour where I got a cookie sandwich the size of my face, but as it was so hot it was all melting too quickly for me to take a photo!

Due to the heat, and whatever my stupid cold/flu thing is, I was starting to feel pretty rotten again, so we headed back to the hotel so I could have a nap, and then went for a final swim in the resort. We also made an impromptu dinner reservation at Grand Floridian Cafe, which meant we decided to get a bus to Animal Kingdom so that we could then get a bus straight to the resort, but due to some confusion and a hideously long bus line, once at Animal Kingdom we decided to just get an Uber!

Dinner was great; I’ve had breakfasts as GFC before and loved it and dinner was no different. As it was our last night, we decided to splash out and get cocktails too – I had a Florida Sunshine which was so yum! From the restaurant, we could even see the fireworks from Happily Ever After while having our dessert!

After dinner we had more transportation nightmares as the monorail was temporarily closed, so we piled on a bus to Magic Kingdom, which then actually dropped us at Contemporary, and there was some sort of accident at the bus stops at MK and an ambulance present so all sorts of delays meant we didn’t get back to our hotel til really late..

Our final morning was a lot more laid back. We got up, packed up the last of our things and checked out of the room, then grabbed some breakfast at Pepper Market before catching the bus to Disney Springs, as our park tickets were no longer valid. Instead, we went bowling at Splitsville, which was a lot of fun – instead of charging by the game as I’m used to, we were given an hour to play as many games as we could fit into that time, which was just over 3 for us!

After bowling, we had lunch at Planet Hollywood, and then had a last browse of the shops before undertaking the slightly embarrassing task of using up all of our remaining food credits in buying snacks and candy. We split our remaining credits between Goofy’s Candy Co and Ghirardelli’s, walking away with over $200 of goods for absolutely nothing – we had a lot of snack and QS credits left..

With that, we were on our way back to the hotel, and on the sad Magical Express to the airport. As with our flight out, we have a stopover in Dublin so it’s going to be a long journey! See ya real soon, Walt Disney World!

November 15, 2017Lottie 4 Comments

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 13

This morning we were up bright and early to get to Animal Kingdom, and while we were among the hundreds of others doing the same, while they joined the 3 hour line for Flights of Passage, we strolled onto the ride courtesy of our fastpasses! In fact, as we left the Pandora area of the park, the FoP line was going all the way down to the Festival of the Lion King theatre.

We grabbed some breakfast in Starbucks, then headed towards Expedition Everest, but opted for the single rider line as the standby queue was over an hour and we weren’t too bothered with doing one ride separately, and this saved us a bunch of time! After that, we went to see Flights of Wonder and then got lunch at Yaki and Yeti quick service.

We then decided to head out from Animal Kingdom and go explore Animal Kingdom Lodge. From the resort’s Savannah outlook we got to see some giraffes, zebras and antelope, and also caught a glimpse of some lions in a neighbouring enclosure! We also checked out the pool area, and attempted a game of table tennis but my hand-eye coordination isn’t fantastic so that didn’t go too well..

Having explored the resort, we caught a bus back to AK and then changed buses to head back to the resort for a pit stop (AKA I’m ill and needed a quick nap and to buy some cold and flu tablets).

Our evening was spent on the Boardwalk. We had dinner at Big River Grille, and then did some more exploring of the Boardwalk Inn, and then headed into Epcot as a cut-through so we could get a bus back to the resort, but we actually got to see a lot of Illuminations as we walked around the World Showcase – I’m not the biggest fan of Illuminations, but it was nice to see it before we leave!

Tomorrow is our last full day and it’s going to be packed with fun!

November 13, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 12

I’m afraid to say that I’ve been pretty poorly today, so a lot of the day has been spent in bed! I did get up for lunch at Pepper Market, and also did get some laundry done, but I’ve mainly been curled up watching Disney movies and feeling a little sorry for myself.

We did get out for the evening though, heading to Hollywood Studios for a few hours. We saw the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, grabbed some dinner at Catalina Eddie’s, while watching some of the new Tower of Terror projections and being snowed on, then went to ride Star Tours and meet BB-8 in the Star Wars Launch Bay.

We wrapped up the evening by using our the Fantasmic fastpasses we’d got from our dining package the other day. The seats were great, but it was a little windy so we got slightly damp from the fountains, but oh well!

I’m hoping to get a good nights sleep so I feel a little more alive tomorrow, let’s see how it goes!

November 12, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 11

Waking up this morning was particularly difficult for some reason, but when we did drag ourselves out of bed, we were off to Magic Kingdom!

Cutting it close to the end time of our first fastpass, once we were in the park we hightailed it over to Big Thunder Mountain, and once that was done and dusted, breakfast was had in the form of a Mickey pretzel, and then we also decided to try a park snack I’ve been wanting to try for years now, the orange equivalent of Dole Whip: a Citrus Swirl. Matthew has just a plan swirl cup, and I had the float, he hated his, I thought it was ok but nothing to particularly write home about.

After that I dragged him on a customary It’s a Small World ride, and then I went to buy something very exciting (haul post when I’m back!) in Fantasyland before we made our way back to Adventureland for lunch at MK’s newest table service, Skipper Canteen, where despite us both being a little underwhelmed at the menu on first glance, we both had excellent meals and I absolutely would recommend!

Lunch took us nicely up to pre-parade time, so we snagged a spot on Main Street for Matthew’s first ever Festival of Fantasy – I was Disneybounding as Rapunzel as she spotted me out of the crowd, in dead. The park was much busier today than it was on our last day in MK, so queues were a bit of a nightmare, so we decided to do Mickey’s Philharmagic, and even that was packed! Being a Christmas party night, the park was really filling up so we decided to do some resort hopping, and caught the monorail to Contemporary first, meaning we got to see the Christmas gingerbread castle and do a little bit of exploring, and then we went round to the Grand Floridian to do the same, with the addition of hitting Basin White!

From GF we got the monorail across to Epcot for a quick look in a few shops (making final shopping decisions as we’re coming to the end of the trip!) and then got the bus back to our resort, where we decided to actually try out the food options here for dinner!

I’ve got some really nasty mosquito bites that have been giving me grief over the last few days and today has been particular horrible, plus I think I’m starting to come down with a post-Disney cold a few days early, waa!

November 11, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 10

So it turns out I accidentally numbered my posts wrong and today is actually day 10, not 9 as I had thought, oops!

Today started much like yesterday, a lie in, followed by a gym session before heading out to the parks, and today our destination was Hollywood Studios. When we arrived, my first port of call was Adrian and Edith’s Head to Toe shop, as I had decided the night before that I was finally going to buy the Sorcerer Mickey hat I’ve wanted for ages, and I wanted it embroidered with my name, so we got that one going to collect later in the day. From there, I grabbed a giant cookie for brunch, then we headed to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show as we had fastpasses. This is a favourite for both Matthew and me!

After the show we hit Tower of Terror, and then Matthew went to do Rock’n’Roller Coaster; I was put off by my experience from the other day so instead I did some shops and grabbed a Starbucks before going back to meet him, and we went on to do Toy Story Midway Mania.

After Midway Mania, we headed to our late lunch reservation at Mama Melrose – we had booked this as part of the Fantasmic dining package – and then went to collect my finished hat, then met Mickey and Minnie before rushing back across the park for the last performance of Beauty and the Beast.

Unfortunately, Matthew wasn’t feeling very well after the show, so we decided to head back to the hotel, having been reassured by guest services that we could utilise the Fantasmic ticket we’d received as part of the dining package on another night instead, which was nice!

Back at the hotel, I went to pick up some merchandise that we’d sent back from the parks, and filled up our resort mugs, then started the mammoth task of reorganising my suitcase to make sure I’ll have enough room for everything I’ve bought!

November 10, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 9

This morning we got up and went to the resort gym for a quick workout, and then headed for Typhoon Lagoon. It was Matthew’s first time ever, and my first time in over 3 years so we were pretty excited, and being November it was pretty quiet too!

After putting our stuff in a locker and finding some sunbeds, we started to hit the slides. First up was Misadventure Falls, then we did all three of the Crush’n’Gusher shoots in quick succession. Then we did the Storm Sliders, followed by Humunga Kowabunga, where I suffered the worst wedgie I have ever experienced in my life..

To recover from that, we hopped into the lazy river and rode that round to Leaning Palms for some lunch, then carried on round the river til we reached our starting point again. I then took Matthew to TL’s famous wave pool, and despite not believing me when I warned him how huge the waves were, he was amazed when he saw just how crazy they get!

We carried on hitting all the slides, doing Keelhaul Falls, Mayday Falls and Gangplank Falls, then headed back to do Misadventure Falls again, before spending the rest of the afternoon relaxing on our sunloungers. As it’s not peak season, to get back to the resort we had to get a bus to Disney Springs to then change for a resort bus, and back at the resort I had a few things to do – parcels to collect, paying off some of the room charges and filling our mugs – and then we just showered and changed and headed out to Hollywood Studios for the evening.

I’d managed to snag us some Fantasmic fastpasses for that night, and by the time we got to the park we only had time to look through some of the shops before we headed to the theatre and set ourselves up with some snacks and popcorn. Fantasmic is Matthew’s favourite Disney show (and we’re seeing it again tomorrow too!) so I was glad we managed to get some decent seats to enjoy Mickey’s imagination!

As the showtime was actually after the official park close time, once it was over we were flushed out the park pretty quickly, although we did catch a sneak peak at the new Christmas projections onto Tower of Terror!

November 9, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 8

Today was another Animal Kingdom day! We didn’t get into the park until about 11.30, and we headed straight to Pandora for our Flights of Passage fastpass. Wow.

First up, while I’ve heard amazing things about some of the features of the standby line, I did not mind missing out on this to save the amount of queue time we did by courtesy of our fastpasses. The ride itself was like no other, and I’m not gonna spoil it for anyone but it was insane. After the ride, we had lunch at the new quick service restaurant, Satu’li Canteen, which in a single meal has become my favourite QS place in Animal Kingdom – SO GOOD.

From there, we went to do Expedition Everest, then Dinosaur, and back to Kali River Rapids, which was welcome in the heat of the day! We did dry within no time of coming off the ride, and decided to cool off some more with a sit down and some air-con at Finding Nemo: The Musical.

After the show, we stopped off in DinoLand USA for a quick Primeval Whirl, and then walked back to Discovery Island and did a little bit of merch shopping before having dinner at Yak and Yeti. I’ve done Yak and Yeti once before but tonight’s dinner blew the last time out of the water!

Tummies full of food, we did our last fastpass of the day, Kilimanjaro Safaris, which I love doing in the dark; we got to see the lions up and about, a black rhino closer than I ever have done and the elephants were pretty active too!

We finished up the night back in Pandora, not to do any of the rides but to experience the land lit up in bioluminescent wonder. If you think this place is amazing during the day, it’s even more awesome at night!

November 8, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 7

Today kicked off with a nice long lie in, but our plans were further delayed somewhat following a fight that I picked with some sort of wasp or bee.. Long story short I have a horrible sting on my finger and spent a great deal of time with my finger soaking in ice water.

Eventually, however, we made it to Epcot, and today’s agenda was hitting the Food and Wine Festival hard, and making use of our abundant snack credits. We started off with mac and cheese, there was a chocolate torte thing, and at the festival centre we even got some free Ghirardelli samples, yay!

As well as sampling the foods around the World Showcase, we were also very interested in keeping in air-con as the day was getting super warm, so we hit a few attractions that I would normally skip, such as Impressions de France and The American Adventure, purely for the sit down in the cool! We sampled dishes from Brazil, China, India and more, filling out our Food and Wine passport as we went.

To give ourselves a little break from the Epcot crowds and the heat, we took a mid-afternoon detour to the Polynesian Resort and spent some time just chilling out on the beach there, and then got the monorail back to Epcot for the rest of the evening. We hit The Seas with Nemo and Friends, then our fastpass for Test Track, and then made our way to the Japan Pavilion for our dinner reservation at Teppan Edo.

It was my third time dining at Teppan Edo and as per usual the food was great. By the time we left it was only 15 mins til park close so we just slowly made our way back to the park entrance and called it a night!

November 7, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 6

I’m not gonna lie to you, today was another easy day in Orlando.

We got the bus to Magic Kingdom, then hopped on the monorail to Contemporary for our breakfast reservation at Chef Mickey’s. Helping out in the restaurant along with Mickey was Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald, and we filled out boots with all-you-can-eat goodness.

After breakfast, we were picked up from outside the Contemporary by the Disney Vacation Club, as we had booked an open house tour while in Epcot a few days back. The open house meant we got to see the showrooms for the new Copper Creek area of Wilderness Lodge, which were incredible, and also Polynesian and Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii. If you’ve never done a DVC meeting and you have the time, I’d definitely recommend it – in fact, we liked it so much we’re going back on Tuesday..

DVC were nice enough to drop us into Disney Springs and from there we got a Lyft to the Orlando Premium Outlets, although I didn’t buy anything more exciting than some new running shoes!

Shopped out, we went back to the hotel to drop off our things, then got the bus to Disney Springs for the evening and as we walked into the West Side there was a gathering around two guys who were having a rap battle which was amazing to watch! We also hit a few of the shops, including the new Coca Cola building, before making our way to T-Rex for dinner, and after walking it off a little by wandering more around the Springs, we headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep!

November 6, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 5

Today we were up bright and early to get to Hollywood Studios for opening. We grabbed a quick snack for breakfast and then headed to Toy Story Midway Mania, riding it once via the standby queue and then again using our fastpass, although the standby still wasn’t more than 30 mins even an hour later. From there we did One Man’s Dream, which is showing a preview of the new Pixar film, Coco, which looks so good!

After that, we decided to brave the standby line for Rock’n’Roller Coaster, but despite the line saying 45 mins, and a cast member announcement warning that it might be slightly longer, we definitely didn’t wait more than about 30 mins. My head took a bit of a bashing on the ride, so we opted for a sit down in Muppet Vision 3D after that.

Lunch was at Sci-Fi Dine In, and I was a happy girl with a steak/mac and cheese combo which was to die for! After lunch we did Star Tours, and we had hoped to do Beauty and the Beast afterwards, but unfortunately my head was really giving me grief after RnR, and I was starting to feel dizzy so instead we went back to the hotel room so I could have a lie down.

Once I was feeling a little better, we decided rather than going back to Hollywood Studios, we’d head to Fantasia Gardens mini golf, then walk along the Boardwalk into Epcot. I’ve been wanting to do mini golf in Disney for a while now, and despite having to wait about 25 mins before we could start due to it being quite busy, I really enjoyed the course, plus we timed it with the end of Fantasmic, so we could actually hear the show from the course!

At Epcot, we decided to trial some of the Food and Wine festival offerings, starting from the International Gateway and working anti-clockwise. As it was late, and we’ve got a whole day planned for this next week, we just hit a few booths but I’ve discovered a serious love for Brazilian cheese bread so yeah that’s gonna happen again..

Once we were back at Future World, we washed down the food with a few samples from Club Cool, then headed out of the park just before the Illuminations crush incurred, and managed to get a resort bus to ourselves!

November 5, 2017Lottie 4 Comments

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 4

Today has been a pretty lazy day, so not much to report folks! We had planned to do Universal today, but decided on a shuffle of days so instead we had a bit of a lie in, then hit the resort gym for a short stint before grabbing some breakfast and heading to the pool.

We stayed poolside til about midday, then changed and headed to Disney Springs, where first on the agenda was lunch. I was dying to try out one of the new quick service options, so we decided on Blaza Pizza and OH MY GOD. A) this was a quick service credit on our dining plan and we got a whole pizza each, B) it was the coolest idea for a pizza place ever – think Pizza Hut crossed with Subway, and C) the pizza was so good! I’m still thinking about it.

After food, it was time for some retail therapy. I dragged Matthew on his first trip to Sephora, where he had to endure my umming and ahhing over what to buy and how much I could justify sending etc. I kept it in the double digits, I’m quite proud. After Sephora we browsed a few more of the stores, then hit Uniqlo where we both bought a few things, and World of Disney, then Basic and the Marketplace Co-op.

Once shopped out for the day, we got the bus back to the resort to dump our purchases, then headed out to Magic Kingdom. The sole reason for hitting MK tonight was so that I could watch Happily Ever After for the first time. We got into the park about an hour before the show time and still had to battle a little bit for a good spot, and sat to stake out.

I had mixed feelings. I mean, I loved it, but as many others do I had very strong feelings for it’s predecessor shows so there’s always that little twinge of sadness (RIP Celebrate the Magic), but it was still amazing. After the show we made use of the remaining half an hour in the park by doing Big Thunder Mountain, which is my favourite ride to do in the dark, before joining the crowds leaving the kingdom for the night.

November 4, 2017Lottie 3 Comments

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 3

So for some reason yesterday’s report published today instead of yesterday, so today is a double post day!

This morning we finally slept through til our alarm, yay! We set it a little later as although we had breakfast reservations, we decided to get an Uber to The Boardwalk rather than having the hassle of getting two buses.

The Bon Voyage breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno was amazing! The food was so good and the character interaction was great, plus we had the nicest server who brought us extra pancakes when I couldn’t make my mind up! After we’d eaten, we took a nice long walk around the Boardwalk, along passed the Yacht and Beach Club resorts before finally heading into Epcot via the International Gateway, and wandered back towards Future World. Bubblegum wall photos were taken, Baymax was met, it was fab.

After meeting Baymax, we headed to Test Track for our fastpass, only it was closed temporarily, so instead we went over to Soarin’, which only actually had a 25 min wait, and then grabbed a Starbucks before hitting Spaceship Earth and our second fastpass, the Epcot Character Spot.

From there, we made our way back to the World Showcase and to Norway to meet Anna and Elsa – random side note, the toilets in the Norway pavilion are really nice – and then trotted back to Future World for our second time on Soarin’, this time because we had a fastpass. While in The Land, we had dinner at Sunshine Seasons, and then we headed back over to Test Track, which was now back up and running, and finally made use of that fastpass, which became valid for the whole day when the ride broke down.

Because I’m really not bothered by Illuminations, we decided to head back to the resort and spent the evening chilling out there!

November 3, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 1

Well here we are folks, another Disney trip has begun!

Courtesy of the time difference, we were awake well before our alarm, and on the bus to the Magic Kingdom just before 7am. We got to MK at about 7:25, and waited in the area reserved for those with breakfast reservations, getting let in at about 7:50. Our breakfast was at Be Our Guest, and wasn’t actually until 8:50, so we took our time getting castle photos, and even had a ride on the carousel before going to the restaurant. Despite being about 30 mins early, they let us straight in, and we were actually finished with our food before our actual reservation time.

After breakfast – which was so good by the way – we had planned on Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was closed, so instead we headed to Big Thunder Mountain and got on the first train out, plus I asked the cast member if we could be in the last row and she let us! From there we did Jungle Cruise, then Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, and our first fastpass of the day, Space Mountain.

The park has been so nice and quiet this morning, and after Space Mountain we managed to do Dumbo, The Barnstormer and The Little Mermaid ride in quick succession, and then made our way round to do Haunted Mansion. Next on the agenda was sorting out a few bits and pieces; Matthew needed to reset his MagicBand pin and my memory maker wasn’t working properly, so we went to Guest Services, via shopping on Main Street USA. We went to City Hall but as there was a queue, the cast member directed us to Liberty Square Ticket Office, a lesser known guest services spot, and thanks to the wonderful Javier, we got everything fixed and he even gave us 3 free Fastpasses by way of apology for the issues I had with my memory maker.

To use them up, we did Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then Tomorrowland Speedway and Space Mountain, and then we did a lap of TTA Peoplemover and had a sit down in Carousel of Progress, which took us nicely up to our early dinner reservation at The Plaza Restaurant. The food was nice, but I wouldn’t rush to eat there again, and had we not been on the dining plan I don’t think I would have liked to actually pay what we should have done.

After dinner the lack of sleep from the night before was really kicking in, so we finished up with our last fastpass of the day, Pirates of the Caribbean, and headed out from Magic Kingdom for the night – we would have been kicked out later due to the Halloween party anyway!
Back to the resort, and we picked up our refillable resort mugs, and as we started to walk back to the room I noticed a furry friend was just outside the reception area, and in the cutest outfit too so I just had to have a cuddle! So we just spent the evening at the resort and ended up falling asleep nice and early, which was definitely needed!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day!

November 1, 2017Lottie 2 Comments

RunDisney Paris 2017: Day 3 and Half Marathon

This morning Dad and I were up bright and early yet again, this time to run double the distance we did yesterday! The half marathon started at the same time as the 10K did the day before, but as Dad and I could join our actual corral B today, it meant we got across the start line quite a bit earlier than we did on the 10K.

The race itself was absolutely fab! The course was slightly different to last year, and we actually spent more time running in the parks which was great, and the characters that were out were so good! We skipped quite a few stops, but I did meet the Three Caballeros, Scrooge McDuck, Timon and Rafiki and Judy Hopps! Dad and I kept a good pace and we came in with a great time, collecting both our medals for the half marathon and also the Bibbidi Bobbidi Challenge, and I also got my second Castle to Chateau medal. While I had a few issues with some of the goings on from this weekend’s races, this race really turned around how I felt about things – I couldn’t fault it.

After the race we were on a bit of a tight time-frame, so we went straight back to the hotel to shower and change before packing up, checking out and rushing back into the parks, which was done at a bit of a waddle given the stiff leg situation. We were rushing as we had a lunch reservation at Captain Jack’s, which is the rebrand of the former Blue Lagoon Restaurant, set inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

I wasn’t sure how I felt when the rebrand was announced, as Blue Lagoon fit in nicely with the Blue Bayou restaurants of Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, both of which are also inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride of their respective parks, but as the Paris ride has just had its refurb, I thought it was nice that the restaurant was getting a spruce up too. The actual restaurant, however, was pretty much exactly the same as it was before, just with a few added pirate flags, and Jack doing the rounds while you eat.

The food, however, wasn’t as good as when I ate here before. My meal at Blue Lagoon on my 21st birthday was absolutely flawless, and not a single scrap was left, but I just didn’t feel quite as wowed by the dishes this time around. I loved my starter, but my main was just a little bit blah and I didn’t finish my dessert either, which was partially down to my lack of appetite post-half marathon, but also because I didn’t totally love the food.

After we’d eaten, it was unfortunately time for us to leave as we had to drive back to the airport for our flight home. I was sad to leave as this trip felt very rushed – races always seem to take so much time away from the weekends – and the weather was so lovely!

If you love reading my trip posts, fear not guys – my next trip is at the end of October!

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September 25, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

RunDisney Paris 2017: Day 2 and 10K

Hey gang! Today we were up nice and early to get to the 10K start line. Dad and I had been put in corral B, but as Hannah and Mum were in C we dropped back so we could all start together.

The race was great. I had a few moans about character lines being shut as it was too busy, but I still got to do a few meets that I really wanted to do and it’s not just about the characters for me. Plus even if I couldn’t meet them, the characters they had out were fab!

Once we’d finished and got our goodies, we celebrated with a McDonalds breakfast before going back to the hotel to shower and change, which led to some accidental napping (sorry not sorry), then we walked into the parks. We started in the Disneyland Park, grabbing lunch at Colonel Hathi’s, then we actually decided to go across into Studios to do one of our family favourite rides, Toy Story Parachute Drop, then for a chance to side down, Disney’s Art of Animation.

From there, I headed solo back to the Disneyland Park to watch Stars on Parade for my first time. As with Illuminations, although I loved the new floats, I still prefer Magic on Parade, or at least the soundtrack! I then had to fight my way back out of the park as we had booked Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show for dinner. It was our first time doing it and it was surprisingly fun, although a little strange at times.

Once the show was over, it was time to call it an early night as Mum and Hannah were both feeling the effects of this morning, and Dad and I will be up again for the half tomorrow!

September 24, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

RunDisney Paris 2017: Day 1

Yes it’s only been a week but once again I’m coming to you from another trip as I’m in Disneyland Paris for the RunDisney weekend!

We had an early start to get the first flight out of Southampton to Paris, which was lucky as due to strike action CDG was crazy busy and we had to wait quite some time to get through passport control! Once we were through and eventually managed to find our hire car company, we were on the road to DLP, and headed straight Hotel Cheyenne where we waited for my sister to arrive before walking into Disney Village. First stop was lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, then we went to the Health and Fitness Expo to pick up our race kit.

I had mixed feelings about the expo. I thought it flowed better this year in how it was set up, but it felt very very empty and I was really surprised at how few exhibitors they had. It just felt a little scarce, although much better for my bank balance! Dad and I picked up our challenge bibs and tshirts, and Mum and Hannah got their 10K ones, then we walked into Disney Village for a bit of window shopping before getting the bus back to the hotel so we could finally unload all our stuff into the room before heading back to the parks.

Somewhat controversially, we actually went into the Walt Disney Studios Park first of all, as it was closing early due to the 5K in the evening. Amazingly, we managed to do the Ratatouille ride with less than a half an hour wait, and also RC Racer and even Crush’s Coaster in a fraction of what I would consider the normal wait time to be. After Crush’s Coaster, the park was past its official closing time so we were guided towards the exit, so we headed over to the Disneyland Park.

Once in the park, my family stopped for ice cream while I walked around the castle hub taking photos of the 25th anniversary decs, then we went into Adventureland to do Pirates of the Caribbean, via a quick detour through Aladdin’s Enchanted Passage. I don’t think I’ve ever queued that long for Pirates, although it was probably only about 20-25mins, but after the refurb I didn’t want to miss out. We then walked the loop through Fantasyland and into Discoveryland for Buzz’s Space Ranger Spin.

Once we’d saved the universe, we took up spots for Illuminations. I had hoped that the audience would remain seated but unfortunately everyone started to stand so on our feet it was.. Honestly, I don’t think it blew me away, and I don’t think it was any better than it’s predecessor Dreams. It was an early park close of 8.30pm, so we headed towards Disney Village but as the 5K was still ongoing it was total carnage. We battled our way through the crowds to the wondrous place that is Earl of Sandwich, grabbed sandwiches and headed back to the hotel on foot.

In the morning we’ll be doing the 10K, stay tuned!

September 23, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Disney Cruise Log: Til We Meet Again

Following our unexpected sea day, our last full day was spent docked at Marseille, but as the weather was far from lovely, we opted to stay on the ship.

I actually started my day bright and early and was in the gym for 7am, then went for a short run around the jogging track on deck 4, then headed back to the room where our room service breakfast arrived shortly afterwards. Once we’d eaten and got dressed, we went to hang out in the Promenade Lounge for a little while, and then I decided to go to the onboard cinema and watch Beauty and the Beast

Lunch was our final trip to Cabanas, making the most of the buffet, and then we did make our way out onto the deck in the end, sticking to the 18+ area which was nice and quiet. Eventually we plucked up the courage to strip down to our swimsuits, despite the cold, and thought we’d found the courage to do the ship’s more extreme water slide, the Aquadunk, but once the four of us were up there, both Sarah and I chickened out and it was just Chelsea and Tilly who experienced the floor dropping out from underneath them! We all quickly recovered from that in the hot tub though..

Once it was about 4:30pm and had started to rain, we all abandoned the hot tub and went to change for the evening. Before the show we queued to meet Minnie and then Mickey who were out for their final time in their sailor best, and then took our seats in the theatre for Disney Dreams.

The show was sweet, and I teared up here and there but for me it wasn’t as incredible as some of the other shows we’d seen in the week, but it was a lovely ending. After that, Sarah and I both went to D-Lounge for the Q&A session with Josh Strickland, the Broadway star we’d seen perform the night before, and stayed for a photo and an autograph before rushing to dinner, which for the last time was at Animators Palate.

Now I’ve loved everything about Animators Palate on this trip, but tonight’s meal was so cool. Upon arriving at the table, we were asked to draw a little character onto a template, and these were then taken away from us before the food. After we’d eaten, we got to watch our creations come to life on the screens around the restaurant as our little people danced around with Mickey and some other Disney favourites – it was truly magical!

We rushed away from dinner to the atrium to get a good spot for the Til We Meet Again show, which was sad but also slightly underwhelming as it had been quite hyped up, but it was still great to see all the amazing characters and cast members who had made our trip so special. We went to get one final drink as a group, and then all headed for bed.

…

Disembarkation day came far too quickly, and we had to be up way too early as our final breakfast was at 8:15, and as we had opted to take our own bags off the ship, we had to lug them with us. After we’d eaten we finally had to accept we were leaving the boat, and had to drag our sorry butts and luggage back to the dock terminal and join the huge line of guests waiting for a taxi.

This trip has been really special. Not only have I experienced a side of Disney that I have never seen before, and experienced it with some of my favourite people, but without a doubt I have met the nicest cast members. From our servers and stateroom hosts to character attendants and the characters themselves, I have been absolutely wowed by people on this ship. Thanks for helping me make some truly magical memories.

September 17, 2017Lottie 2 Comments

Disney Cruise Log: First Stop, Naples

Hey gang! Today we reached our first port, Naples! Due to my poorliness last night, I slept in with Sarah til about 8am, while Sammy headed off for her excursion to Pompeii.

When we finally dragged ourselves up, we grabbed a quick breakfast in Cabanas, then I dragged Sarah with me to the gym where, to my amazement, she actually stayed! Well, I worked out and she had a bit of a walk on the treadmill and did a few squats while dressed in denim shorts and flip flops, haha! The gym was fab; really spacious and lots of equipment – I was definitely in my element!

After showering and getting dressed, we decided to do a tour of the various kids clubs that were having open houses, as they’re normally off limits to anyone who isn’t of the age range. First stop was Edge, then Oceaneer’s Club (which we both could have stayed at forever) then we went to Vibe before stopping for some lunch. To mix things up, we went to Boiler Bites instead of Cabanas, and also got a slice of pizza from Pinocchio’s Pizzeria, and sat by the main pool watching Jungle Book on the Funnel Vision screen.

As the weather was getting worse and we were getting colder, we decided it was time to cave in and go back to get jumpers, before heading down to the lobby atrium as Captain Hook was due to come out, but as Sammy arrived back early from her excursion starving hungry, we went back up to the deck to get her some food and an ice cream. Once we were suitably full of soft serve, we went back to the lower decks where we bumped into Chelsea and family, and Chelsea joined us for another trip to the kids club open house – where much silliness occurred! – and then to take more photos in various locations before queueing to see Minnie, then went to change for dinner.

Despite a small power outage, the rest of the evening went fairly swimmingly. First on the agenda was the evening show, Walt Disney: The Dream Goes On, then we took photos in the atrium and queued to meet Mickey before dinner at Lumiere’s, which was another incredible meal and I probably walked away twice the size! Once stuffed, we went to meet Donald, followed by Daisy, then ducked (get it) into D-Lounge to see the Saludos Amigos Fiesta, but as it turned out to be more of a dancing lesson than a dance party, we called it a night and headed to bed for some much needed sleep as tomorrow will be a busy day!

Rome, we’re coming for you!

September 12, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Disney Cruise Log: All Aboard and A Day at Sea

Ahoy shipmates! I’m coming to you today from the Disney Magic as I’m cruising round the Med, and as there’s no signal in the sea, posts are gonna be running a little bit behind my daily updates so bear with me!On Saturday morning I flew to Barcelona with Sarah, and met Sammy at the airport after a minor mix up with terminals, and the three of us got a taxi to the dock. At the dock terminal we had to drop our bags, then go through security before checking in and getting our boarding group number, which decides when we get onto the ship. As it was number 23, and they weren’t anywhere near calling us yet, we went to meet our captain, the main mouse himself!

There was a bit of a delay getting aboard due to weather issues, but once we were on the ship our main priority was lunch, so we went straight up to the buffet spectacular that is Cabanas and filled multiple plates with the various offerings, then once we were stuffed headed down to see our stateroom and unpack – 3 girls with several outfits per day and one wardrobe was a bit of a struggle! After unpacking and chilling out for a little bit, it was time for the mandatory safety drill, which was a bit of a drag but oh well!

As the rain had stopped, we headed from the drill to the top deck to take some (actually a lot) of photos, then down to the lobby atrium to see the sail away party – although we had yet to leave port at that stage – and went on from there to explore the ship for a little while. As we are on the later dinner sitting, it means that we go to the earlier performance of whatever show is on, and it was the Be Our Guest welcome show, which gave us a sneak peak of some of the other performances that will be happening over the coming week, and then after the show we went to change for dinner, via the gift shop!

Our dinner was at Animators Palette, and I couldn’t flaw a single thing – the setting was incredible, the food was amazing, and there was even a magical visitor before dessert! After dinner, we went to meet Donald, and bumped into Chelsea while in the line, and after a quick catch up we headed to bed due to having been awake since 3am!

Sunday morning we were up early as we had a Mickey and pals breakfast booked for 8:30am. This was also in Animator’s Palette, and we saw Mickey, Minnie and Goofy – and again no complaints about the food! After breakfast we went to take some more photos on deck, then went down to the lobby atrium to do the princess meet – we actually had this booked for Friday, but Chelsea’s was booked for today, and as her family weren’t bothered by attending, they let us use their slots so we could meet all the princesses twice! It was Tiana, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Belle, and they were all perfect and the sweetest!

From meeting the princesses, we went to change into our bikinis and headed back to the deck to chill out for a bit, then grabbed an ice cream and a drink, and then after another wander around the boat went to another buffet lunch at Cabanas. Post-buffet, we decided to take part in one of the many onboard activities: the Ultimate Disney Trivia quiz at O’Gills Pub in the over 18s part of the ship. Now I’m a pub-quizzing wiz, but some of these questions were hard! We did win one round of the quiz, but our answers to some of the more impossible questions just didn’t match up to some others so we walked away in around about 5th place.

We got over our loss pretty quickly with another ice-cream, and although still early, we went back to our stateroom to start getting ready for formal night a) because 3 girls and 1 shower = time and b) there were going to be a lot of characters out in their formal night outfits from about 4:30 onwards and we didn’t want to miss out on the photo opportunities, and it was a good job because it actually took us until 4:30 to get ready!

Dressed to impress, we went to see Donald, then Chip and Dale with Chelsea and Tilly, and then after a few photos on the deck in our dresses, we made our way to the Walt Disney Theatre for the first performance of Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story. The show was actually much longer than I expected which was great, and the storyline was very similar to one of the Cinderella movie sequels, A Twist in Time, and even included one of the same songs which was cute!

After the show we had to rush to get in line to meet Minnie in her formal outfit, and after seeing her we rushed again to catch Daisy before dinner, which tonight was at Carioca’s. Unfortunately I can’t say much about the food here as due to it being a particularly choppy night, and probably due to my bizarre buffet choices from earlier in the day, I was starting to feel a little (actually a lot) queasy.. I did order a starter and a main, and managed about 2-3 mouthfuls of each but in the end I gave up and took my leave from dinner early. I was pretty gutted as it meant I missed out on meeting Mickey in his formal night attire, but I didn’t want to make myself any worse so early on in our trip, and five minutes after a laid down on the bed I was zzzzz..

Next stop Naples!

September 11, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Disneyland Day 5 and Tinkerbell Half Marathon

And another challenge weekend is over! The Tinkerbell half this morning was probably one of the most comfortable ones I’ve run, which is incredible considering how much my feet ached yesterday!I stopped for a few photos with various fairies, and also pirate Pluto, but aside from those few stops I kept a really consistent pace and completed the race in just over 3 hours, with about 25 mins being waiting for characters. I also walked away with not one but FOUR medals: one for the half, the Pixie Dust Challenge medal for doing the 10K yesterday as well, a regular blue 10th anniversary Coast to Coast medal, and also a pink Coast to Coast for having run the Princess and Tinkerbell races in the same calendar year!

After dragging myself back to the hotel, I soaked my legs in the pool then showered and had a nap, while Sarah headed into the parks, and I met up with her at about 1:45 at Fantasyland Theater for another Mickey and the Magical Map performance, before I got my long awaited burger from Galactic Grill. We then swung by the castle for me to take some medal photos, then went across to Frontierland and met Dr Facilier on the Mark Twain Riverboat.

On the hunt for more characters, we headed back to Town Square to no avail, so instead went to take some photos by the Small World wall (Disney basic) and went into Toontown for a bit. Being passed 4pm, Tinkerbell’s meeting spot in Pixie Hollow was now empty, meaning I could go in and take some more medal photos, then we hid out at my favourite sneaky parade watching spot for Soundsational.

After the parade, we went into one of the stores on Main Street so I could buy a jumper, having forgotten to bring my jacket in with me, and knowing it would cool down before the fireworks tonight, then took a few final photos by the castle before going into Fantasyland and doing the Storybook Canal Boats, only to realise while we were in the line that the last Mickey and the Magical Map show was due to start soon, so we ended up cutting out early to go see that one more time instead!

After drying our eyes and practically being forcibly removed from the theatre, the strangest thing happened: Sarah actually wanted to go to the Enchanted Tiki Room! I took her for her first time in WDW back in February and now she clearly loves it.. From there, we wandered around New Orleans Square for a little while, then decided to go to Troubadour Tavern for dinner, only to find it had already closed, so instead ended up at Refreshment Corner, although I ended up getting my food from Jolly Holiday, and we sat on the tables outside while Main Street Electrical went by.

Once the parade was over, we headed into the centre of Main Street USA to watch the fireworks for my first and last time of the trip. They actually started with the same music as Wishes from WDW, but the majority of the show was a cute little dedication to each of the iconic Disneyland attractions – Enchanted Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain etc – which I thought was different and actually really cool! Once they were done, it was then time to say goodbye to Disneyland and drag ourselves back to the hotel. Once again this has been the most magical and I’m so sad to be leaving my happy place, but I guess it’s not goodbye, it’s see ya real soon..

May 15, 2017Lottie 2 Comments

Disneyland Day 2

You’d think after how tired we were last night, we’d have slept right through til 8am this morning. Nope..

We were up about 6:30-7am ish, and got into the Disneyland park just after 9am, and headed straight for Toontown, where we waited for it to open at 10am. You might think this is crazy, but the empty Toontown photos we took were 100% worth it! After our little photoshoot, we met Minnie in her house, then Mickey in his, before heading back out of the park and hopping over to California Adventure.

First on the agenda was food, having not had any breakfast and given it was passed 11am. We ate at Pacific Wharf Cafe, which involved amazing freshly baked sourdough bread, then wandered over to the Hyperion Theater for the 12:30 showing of Frozen.

The staging of the show was really impressive, and the cast was great, but while the performance overall was pretty good, I did miss Aladdin.. It was, however, nice to sit down in some air con for an hour! From there we headed to Paradise Pier and kicked ourselves back into gear with a ride on California Screamin’, then queued about 15 mins to get into the famous Cove Bar for those all-too-Instagrammable cocktails.

We actually only ordered one actual cocktail between the two of us, and a non-alcoholic lemonade mocktail (which we actually preferred due to the candy floss!), but we had an amazing table on the waterside looking out over the pier and Mickey’s fun wheel and it was perfect. Drinks finished, we went back to the pier for a few photos, then walked back to Buena Vista Street where we met Mickey and Donald, Sarah grabbed an ice cream and I picked up a cookie sandwich on our way back to Paradise Pier for our fastpasses for Toy Story Midway Mania.

After the ride, we hopped onto the Little Mermaid ride to kill 15 mins before heading to Cars Land for the other fastpass we’d picked up earlier in the day – Radiator Springs Racers. This ride blows me away every time with how amazing and impressive it is, and I’ve only ever done it as a single rider before so it was nice to actually get to sit with someone I know!

After Racers, we went to Animation Academy and both drew very questionable attempts at Olaf, then went back for another round of California Screamin’ before grabbing dinner at Lucky Fortune Cookery, which is a great place for when you’re not in the mood for burgers and pizza! Then to kill time before World of Color, as it was a little too cool for us to sit and wait for 40 mins without jackets, we went on Voyage of the Little Mermaid again, which was so quiet that the cast members were happy (and very entertained) to let us ride it three times in a row without actually getting off. We didn’t have the best view for World of Color, but it wasn’t that important for Sarah and I just wanted to see it at some point, and knew I wouldn’t any other evening with the early nights I’ll be needing for the races!

Show over, we cut through the Grand Californian as a shortcut back to the hotel, and are calling it a night as we’ll be back in the parks early tomorrow!

May 12, 2017Lottie 4 Comments

February Disney Trip Day 11

There is actually nothing more beautiful than looking out of your bedroom window and seeing the Grand Floridian and Magic Kingdom just across the water. Honestly, our stay in the Polynesian was perfect. We sat in our room and ate peanut butter Rice Krispie treats for breakfast and could have stayed there forever.

But it was extra magic hours in MK, so we slightly begrudgingly checked out, and got the monorail over to the park. Despite missing most of the hour, we did get to see the new welcome show on the castle stage, which was very sweet, them casually strolled through the castle and into Fantasyland where we kicked off the day with a ride on the carousel – something we’d not done yet this trip. After our ride, we headed over to the Tangled toilets to shoot some photos of my outfit – The Happiest Fitness Co’s new collection – then back round Fantasyland to the Under the Sea Little Mermaid ride, which was a walk on.

Park still fairly quiet, we headed into Storybook Circus and rode The Barnstormer, then made our way round to Tomorrowland for a Space Mountain fastpass. Again, they tried to put us into the Alpha line, but I asked if we could do Omega and the cast member let us so we were happy! Then is it really a trip if you haven’t been on the TTA People Mover?! This ride has been crazy busy for our whole time here, and because I firmly believe that it should always be a walk-on, this morning made the perfect first and last ride of the trip.

As we made our way back through Fantasyland, we once again came across the Tremaine sisters, but same as yesterday, were told as we got in line that they would be finishing soon and replaced by the Fairy Godmother, who we’d already met, so our plan was foiled again! Instead, we walked into Liberty Square and grabbed some snacks at Liberty Square Market, before going on a final character meet – the boss himself, talking Mickey Mouse. Lucky we had fastpasses, cos the queue was over an hour! He told us we were the most beautiful princesses he’d seen all day, and lots of cuddles were had as we faced the reality of leaving soon.

To enjoy our remaining hour, we watched the Dapper Dans on Main Street, then spent some time on the Hub grass and even did a little bit of Move It, Shake It before we said ‘see ya real soon!’ to the kingdom. Our simple monorail trip back to the resort turned into a little bit of a disaster, courtesy of the monorail ahead of us having some technical problems, and as a result we missed our Magical Express to the airport, but after discovering that the next bus was fully booked, the hotel staff were kind enough to provide a taxi to the airport on them to ensure we didn’t have any more problems.

This, my friends, is where this story comes to a close, and I’ll be back in the UK by the time this post goes live. It really has been the most magical of trips, and while I can’t thank you lovely bunch enough for all your lovely words, the star of this show in my eyes is the beautiful Sarah, my Disney soul mate who I’ve just had the most fun with. This trip would have been nothing without here, and I’m so grateful to have her in my life ❤

Signing off guys, see ya real soon!

PS. I’m not really signing off, usual blog content will resume shortly!

March 4, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

February Disney Trip Day 10

I can’t get over the fact that today is our last full day here in the magic, waaaa!

After checking out of Riverside, we headed into the Magic Kingdom, slightly delayed by crazy traffic, and after a gentle stroll down Main Street went straight to Splash Mountain, where I got a red card, woo! From there, we walked back towards the castle, bumping into the lovely Jane along the way, and as we arrived back at the hub, Royal Friendship Faire was just about to begin. Spoiler alert, I took 130 photos..

Afterwards, we went to go see Pooh and Tigger, but the line was moving so slowly that we had to give up in order to get to our lunch reservation at Be Our Guest. Unlike on previous quick service trips here, we weren’t given anything to take to the table with us, instead they tracked us using our magic bands! Then, with a bit of time to kill before our next fastpass, we headed down to Town Square Theater to meet Tinkerbell. It was a bit of a wait, but it was in the air conditioning and we could sit down on the floor, so it was ok!

Post Pixie Hollow trip, we staked out a spot for Festival of Fantasy on Main Street USA, then once the parade was done, we tried for Tigger and Pooh again, but with a 45 minute wait, we gave up and made our way towards Pirates of the Caribbean. As we got behind the castle, we noticed the ugly stepsisters meeting, so dived into that queue, only to find that they were leaving before we’d get a chance to see them, boo! So Pirates it was, followed by a purple wall photo shoot – Disney basic life – to fill the time until our Big Thunder fastpass, but while we were on our way back to BTM, we came across the Frontierland Hoedown Happening, a 10 minute dance party featuring some of the Brer animals, but also Horace and some of the bears from Country Bear Jamboree. While we didn’t really participate, we did get to walk arm in arm with Horace as they left to go backstage, and snagged a quick photo too!

After Big Thunder, we headed back for a third attempt at Pooh and Tigger and… SUCCESS! These two tipped our character count to over 50 – yes, 50 unique characters on this trip alone! Once we’d finally got to see them, we walked back to Adventureland for our final fastpass of the evening, Jungle Cruise, then headed back to the castle and grabbed some popcorn to camp out for our final Wishes viewing EVER. Waaaaaaa!

It was perfect – we sat for the whole performance and had a great view. They did cancel Tinkerbell due to strong winds, but that made it no less magical, and we sat in front of the castle for ages afterwards in denial about leaving. When we did finally stand up, we headed to Main Street Confectionery to use up the last of our food credits before jumping on the monorail to our hotel for the night. Oh that’s right it’s the Polynesian!

You guys this hotel is beautiful, and the only sad part about this stay is that we’re only here for the night and won’t get a chance to explore the other facilities, but we can see the castle and the lake from our balcony and it’s so beautiful!

Just gonna cry myself to sleep with happiness about this hotel and sadness about tomorrow..

March 3, 2017Lottie 3 Comments

February Disney Trip Day 1

I AM BACCCKKKKK

Today has been magical. Because we forced ourselves to stay up so late on Monday night, we slept right through til 6am with no troubles, and hopped on the resort bus into the Magic Kingdom for pre-opening entry, courtesy of our breakfast reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table. We did empty(ish) Main Street and castle photos, before heading round to the back of the castle to the restaurant. Oh my gosh, it was the most magical breakfast! Full review to come, but 5 princesses, amazing food, and well, WE WERE INSIDE THE CASTLE. Our server was also really lovely too!

We left the restaurant just after 9, yet the park was still pretty empty to we wandered to the Tangled toilets and then through to Liberty Square, where we stumbled across a pair of mischievous cowboy chipmunks, and we had such a fun play with them, before we headed over to my traditional first ride of Pirates of the Caribbean! On our way back through to Fantasyland, we spotted Mary Poppins at the gazebo, and had a chat and a few photos with her!

From there, we had our Fastpass at Princess Fairytale Hall with Rapunzel and Tiana, then bumped into the Fairy Godmother just outside – 11 characters before 10.30! Next was a ride on Dumbo, and then Starbucks on Main Street #disneybasic.

We sat on the hub grass being classic WDW girls with our Starbucks and listened to the music from Move it, Shake it, and watched as the floats headed back up Main Street, and then Royal Friendship Faire began on the castle stage. I was super excited to watch it having last been here when it was Dream Along with Mickey, and safe to say I fell in love with it – Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Donald.. It brought a tear or two (I mean, I know everything at Disney does, but still) and I’m definitely looking forward to watching it again and hopefully getting some better photos with my telescopic lens! After the show, we had our Fastpasses for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then walked through the now super busy park, and ended up in the Enchanted Tiki Room.

Now in Adventureland, we came across Aladdin and Jasmine meeting in the bazaar, so we waited to meet them, and then headed to Tomorrowland and hit Carousel of Progress before our Space Mountain fastpass. It was then about 2.30 so we rushed back to Main Street for Festival of Fantasy, only to find it was packed and only got a mediocre view, but hey ho.. The park was HEAVING and queue times were ridiculous for everything, so we decided to beat the odds and get some food – also cos we hadn’t eaten since breakfast – at Cosmic Ray’s, since the busy park meant eating at a normal meal time would probably be absolute chaos.

One chicken club and fries later, we decided to do Philharmagic and then head to Tom Sawyers Island, only to find it was shut.. To console ourselves, we headed down Main Street and I dutifully watched Sarah buy her annual pass cos I’m a good friend like that. A quick walk through some shops, and 3 Vinylmations later (oops sorry not sorry) and we made our way back to Its a Small World for our final fastpass of the day.

Feet aching and tiredness setting in, we headed to the Tangled toilets to sit down for a little bit in the hope of a magical moment.. AND IT HAPPENED.

The legendary (or not quite) lantern that’s been the hit of Disney Instagram for the last week, that we were praying might still be a thing this week was!! All of a sudden the end of the day became even more magical than it already had been – and then we topped it off with Wishes!
I’m gonna round the day off with some stats cos y’all know I love numbers:

Total characters met: 12

Total steps: 22078

Total distance: 9.21 miles, and no, I’ve not even done any running yet..

February 22, 2017Lottie 6 Comments

Disneyland Paris Day 1

Bonjour! Today has been such a long day, but it’s been worth it! I was up at 4.30am to get to the airport, and after minor delays to my flight, followed by waiting for the Magical Shuttle in -5C temperatures, I was finally on my way to the parks.

Disneyland Park Paris

Despite being early, my room was ready when I arrived at Newport Bay so I ran straight up to my room – which is beautiful and looks over the lake! – dumped my stuff and skipped into the parks, where quite promptly I bumped into Cara and the gang. They offered for me to hang out with them for a bit, but as soon as I found out that Mitch and, more importantly, Donald were in the lobby of the Disneyland Hotel, that’s exactly where I was headed.

After some character meets and hanging out with friends, my stomach was growling due to lack of any form of lunch, so I headed back into the parks solo, got some food on Main Street and watched the Frozen Royal Welcome, before starting an epic trek of photo taking through the park.

Yes, those are icicles on Skull Rock. It is that cold.

I met back up with Mitch behind the castle for some outfit photos he promised to take for me, then we waited outside Auberge to see what princesses would come out, and hit the jackpot with Belle, Aurora and Cinderella and Charming, got photos with them and then nabbed a spot for Magic on Parade.

Parade was extra special, having not only Belle and human beast walking behind the princess float, but also Aladdin and Jasmine and Ariel and Eric! We were all totally amazed and excited and it made the whole day feel more magical. After the parade, Mitch and I run our little frozen feet over to meet Mickey before it closed.

A quick dinner at Hakuna Matata, and my tiredness was really setting in, so I headed out of the park, and back to the hotel via World of Disney. Just gonna chill out for a little bit, then get an early night ready for a full park day tomorrow!

January 21, 2017Lottie 6 Comments

Hong Kong Disneyland – Day 2!

It’s the last Disney day, waa!

With the park not opening until 10.30, we grabbed our Mickey waffles in the hotel instead, at Hollywood and Dine, before catching the resort shuttle to the park. It’s a lot busier today, but being hotel guests we get quicker access to security and ticket checks, so we could just swan on past the crowds and into the park. We actually missed rope drop due to doing some early shopping, but once we were done it was time for park action!

Hong Kong Disneyland 10th anniversary

We walked through the castle into Fantasyland, and decided to skip the hour queue for Dumbo in favour of going to Toy Story Land for Parachute Drop, which only had a 10 minute wait, then round to Mystic Point for Mystic Manor. Although it’s this parks Haunted Mansion equivalent, it’s actually a very different experience but a lot of fun all the same! From there we went back into Grizzly Gulch, and another go on the Mine Train, still only with a 5 minute wait, then back across into Fantasyland for another showing of Mickey and the Wondrous Book. Yesterday we managed to walk in with 5 minutes til showtime, but today getting there 20 minutes before it was a huge queue.

Hong Kong Disneyland Fantasy Gardens

After the show, feeling refreshed from half an hour of air-con, it was time for us to go and meet the boss, Mickey Mouse himself, in Fantasy Gardens, to complete our set of family photos with Mickey in every park. Now well past 1.30pm, it was time to find food, so we walked through Fantasyland back to Tomorrowland and grabbed lunch at Starlight Cafe, then got in the queue for Buzz, which was held up a little by a protein spill!

Hong Kong Disneyland Flights of Fantasy

After another successful mission, I shot off to get a spot for Flights of Fantasy, but within 5 minutes of the parade starting, had overheated and was fed up with people pushing their children in front of me, as well as battling to get photos over a sea of umbrellas, so called it a day early. At this point Mum and Hannah had also had enough of the heat, and decided to go back to the hotel for a swim, so Dad and I went to catch the next show of Mickey in the Wondrous Book, but finding it had already filled up, did Its a Small World instead.

With the park being much busier today, we didn’t want to chance another full theatre for Festival of the Lion King, so went straight across to that, because although it meant a half an hour wait, it was shady and there were fans, and then half an hours sit down in an air conditioned theatre. NB: I know I keep mentioning heat and air con, but seriously it’s 35C and not a cloud or hint of a breeze.

Hong Kong Disneyland City Hall

After the show, we queued about half an hour for Hyperspace Mountain, which may not seem like much in terms of most parks, but was actually the longest wait time we’ve had today! We planned to go from there to Storybook Theatre, but once again Mickey and the Wondrous Book had already filled up, so another miss! Instead we got a drink in Corner Cafe, then found a spot on Main Street USA for Paint the Night.

Hong Kong Disneyland Paint the Night parade

The parade felt much more laid back today; we sat further up Main Street which was a lot cooler and less crowded, so we didn’t cook as we had yesterday! To fill the time between the parade and the fireworks, we managed to sneak in two rounds on Buzz and get back to a good spot to watch Disney in the Stars for the final time.

Hong Kong, you’ve been a blast! See ya real soon!

July 25, 2016Lottie 2 Comments

Hong Kong Disneyland – Day 1!

I am so happy today guys! Not only am I in Hong Kong Disneyland, but I’ve finally completed one of my biggest bucket list moments – visiting all of the Disney parks around the world – and I’ve done them all in the last 13 months!

Hong Kong Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland is beautiful too! While it may be the smallest park, it is so pretty; it’s very much like Disneyland California in style and appearance, complete with baby Sleeping Beauty castle at the end of Main Street. It’s also so quiet!!

We got into the park just before opening at 10, and were able to see the rope drop by the castle, before going straight to Tomorrowland for Hyperspace Mountain – hello 5 minute wait! From there, we literally walked onto Buzz, then went back down Main Street for a Mickey waffle kinda breakfast.

Mickey waffle

Tummies full, it probably wasn’t the most sensible idea to go straight to Grizzly Gulch for the Mine Train – a slightly more extreme Big Thunder Mountain – but it was a 5 minute wait so we did it anyway! You’re probably getting a sense of how quiet it is now..

With Mum feeling a little delicate after waffles and rollercoaster, we took a quite walk through Toy Story Land and Fantasyland on our way to the Storybook Theater for the first performance of Mickey and the Wondrous Book. I was hoping for something spectacular, and I was so happy with it! It was like a cross of Mickey and the Magical Map (Cali), Forest of Enchantment (DLP) and had a very small amount of Frozen, making it just the right balance of everything! I love all Disney shows, but that was definitely a top contender!

Mickey and the Wondrous Book

Next stop was Its a Small World – a ride that was lacking from Shanghai, and by the time we came off that, it was time to make our way back to the castle for the 10th anniversary show. It was basically a marching band and Mickey and the gang having a little dance in front of the castle, but it was quite sweet. In desperate need for air con, we took a quick walk through some shops before heading to Festival of the Lion King in Adventureland. The show was a little different to its Florida counterpart, in that it was more of a narrative of the Lion King story, but it was still fabulous and the performers were amazing!

Hong Kong Disneyland 10th anniversary

Now coming up parade time, we shot across to the castle and hid in some shade for a little while, then found a spot for Flights of Fantasy! The parade actually uses the same music as Disneyland’s Soundsational parade, just with a few word changes, so I felt right and home! There must have been some minor malfunction as half way through all the floats stopped and they invited kids to dance with the performers, but it was up and running fairly soon. I’ve found parades both here and Shanghai tend to be a bit shorter than the Western ones, which is a shame because I love parades, but they’re definitely no less spectacular!

Cooking a little, we caught the train from Fantasyland back to Main Street – incidentally the longest queue we’ve been in all day – and ended up in Animation Academy to learn how to draw BB-8. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t very good at it. Having not eaten lunch, we were pretty hungry now, and looking at the map, Royal Banquet Hall seemed like an excellent choice. It had everything from burgers and pizza to sushi and dim-sum, so of course I had a bit of both!

Mystic Manorimage

From dinner, we did Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, then Jungle Cruise and Mystic Manor all in fairly quick succession, and then another galactic mission with Buzz. We also headed over to Star Wars Command Post with the hopes of seeing Chewbacca, but it wasn’t his meeting time so instead we went back to Fantasyland to watch Philharmagic to kill some time before finding a spot to camp out for Paint the Night.

After loving PtN in California back in January, I was so excited for this, and as soon as it began I felt the magic of it. Again, it was a little shorter than its American cousin, but no less fun and spectacular – although sitting on the ground to watch it felt like being stone baked! With not long to the fireworks, we stayed on Main Street and tried to chill out; it’s hard to do in 30C heat.

The fireworks were fairly short and sweet, but I really enjoyed the tribute to Mulan; Shanghai didn’t seem to acknowledge their national princess much so I was happy to see Hong Kong making an effort! I am now totally pooped, and ready for a good nights sleep before tomorrow’s adventure!

July 24, 2016Lottie Leave a comment

Shanghai Disneyland – Day 3!

Today was our last day in Shanghai, and after a lie in I was in a bit of a rush to get into the parks, worrying that we’d lost an hour by sleeping. What I’d forgotten was that being a Monday, the park didn’t open til 9..

Shanghai Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean

Mum and Hannah had decided not to come into the park today, so once Dad and I caught the shuttle bus over, and after bag and ticket check, still made it in just before 9am. We took a bit of a slow wander through the parks on our way to Pirates of the Caribbean, after which we headed back to Mickey Avenue to grab some breakfast at Remy’s Patisserie. There was a band playing in front of the Walt and Mickey statue, which we could watch from where we sat to eat.

Shanghai Disneyland Remy's Patisserie

Next on the agenda was the Dumbo ride, but with an hour wait, we didn’t really fancy that, instead heading back for a final ride on Pirates. If you’ve read the last two days as well, you’ll notice we’ve done this a lot, but it’s so good!

Shanghai Disneyland food

Only having an hour left before needing to meet Mum and Hannah in Disneytown, we wandered back to Tomorrowland, and finished our half-day with a final intergalactic mission with Buzz.

After leaving the park, we grabbed lunch in The Cheesecake Factory in Disneytown, before heading back to pick up our bags and getting a taxi to the airport for the next leg of our trip: Chengdu!

I’ll be of the radar for a few more days now, then once in Hong Kong I’ll be back with access to social media and will bombard you with updates from there, as well as blogging our time in Hong Kong Disneyland! See ya real soon Shanghai!

July 18, 2016Lottie 2 Comments

Shanghai Disneyland – Day 2!

Shanghai Disneyland castle

After sleeping in the comfiest beds, we were up bright and early for breakfast at 7, before catching the shuttle bus from outside the hotel to the park. With a game plan in mind, and having done Tron last night, we headed straight for the next big queue ride as soon as the park opened: Soaring Over the Horizon. Despite a supposed 60 minute wait, as well as having to deal with the queue jumpers, we were in and out within the hour!

Shanghai Disneyland

From there, we went on to Pirates of the Caribbean, which was only a 5 minute wait and still just as awesome a ride as it was yesterday – totally mind blowing! We wandered on through to behind the castle after that, and did the Voyage of the Crystal Grotto; a boat ride featuring scenes from classic princess stories, before going underneath the castle into the crystal grotto. It was a little bit Jungle Cruise-esque, minus the commentary.

Shanghai Disneyland Tangled boat

Next on the agenda was seeing the Baymax Super Exercise Expo, where Hiro and Baymax lead the audience of Tomorrowland through a Big Hero 6 inspired dance. Baymax was a real party animal! It was then time for Golden Fairytale Fanfare, the castle show, so we went to hang out in front of the castle for a bit before that begun; partly to sit down for a bit, and partly to make sure I got a good spot! The show was totally beautiful; the costumes were all amazing and the singing was a good balance of Chinese and English.

Shanghai Disneyland Golden Fairytale Fanfare

Now lunch time, we headed back to Fantasyland, stopping by the Tangled Tree Tavern – a nod to the Snuggly Duckling – so I could take a million photos, before deciding to eat at Pinocchio’s. I had Peking duck pizza, which was not only incredible, but also Mickey shaped! In the Mickey mood, it was time to go and meet the boss himself. He was suited and booted in his best Shanghai suit and we had a big hug!
That exited right by the Marvel Universe area, so we stuck our heads in – mainly so my sister could see what Captain America looked like – and ended up in a Spiderman drawing class, which actually turned out to be a Groot drawing class.. Long story short, I’m not very good at drawing Groot.

Shanghai Disneyland Marvel

With the temperature getting higher, we ducked out of the park for a little while via the little entrance to Disneytown near Tomorrowland. After a bit of air conditioning and window shopping, it was almost time for our Tron Fastpass timeslot, so back to Tomorrowland we went, only to find it was closed.. Basically, when the queue reaches its total capacity, they have to temporarily ‘close’ the ride, which means they stop anyone even entering the line, to let it work its way down a little.

Shanghai Disneyland Mickey's Storybook Express

So instead we did a quick Buzz and went to watch the parade – Mickey’s Storybook Express – which was fab but seemed to be running shorter than usual; I’ve seen photos of a few floats that we didn’t see today! By the time the parade was over, Tron had reopened, so we finally got to make use of our Fastpasses, although it was still about 40 minutes wait!

I was thoroughly sunburnt by this point, so we headed back into Disneytown so I could by all the things on the list I’d made earlier, then headed back to the hotel to aftersun up – I’m basically lobster coloured..

Today has had me a little tuckered out; it’s been a really hot day and I’ve not nearly had enough to drink so I’m not feeling 100%, so I’m signing out early tonight. We’re going to watch the nighttime show from the viewing platform at the hotel and get a proper night’s sleep so we’re raring to go for our last day tomorrow!

Goodnight!

July 17, 2016Lottie Leave a comment

Shanghai Disneyland – Day 1!

What a magical day!

So this morning we were up at 6.30am to get from our hotel in central Shanghai to the Disney resort area – although there was a bus that ran from nearby, we decided to get a taxi to save a bit of time, which was about £20 to the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel.

From the hotel reception area we could see out across the lake, and there was the castle..

Shanghai Disneyland castle

I cried, obviously.

We caught the ferry across the lake, and spent quite a while in bag checks and ticket check queues, and then we were in! While the park doesn’t have a classic Main Street USA, it has Mickey Avenue which is full of charm and the most amazing little details. The castle show was just finishing, so we headed off to start exploring!

Shanghai Disneyland station

Unlike the classic US park set up, here Adventureland is on the right hand side of the castle, and Tomorrowland on the left, so we started an anti-clockwise loop, with the first ride being Pirates of the Caribbean – a bit of a family tradition. It was a Pirates like no other; completely raising the bar for all the other PotC rides around the world! I won’t spoil it too much, but it was way more than just a boat ride.

Shanghai Disneyland Royal Banquet Hall

From there, we headed into Fantasyland land, did the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride, and Pooh was actually hanging out outside the exit when we left so we got in a quick cuddle and photo! We then went on to do Peter Pan’s Flight, then went to explore the beautiful Enchanted Storybook Castle, where we were stopped and asked if we were interesting in lunch at the Royal Banquet Hall – the character restaurant inside the castle – how can you say no to that?! It was just the most magical meal; the food was incredible and the characters were in the cutest outfits!

Enchanted Storybook Castle

After feeling thoroughly stuffed, we queued up for the Once Upon a Time Adventure, an interactive walk up and through the castle, with the story of Snow White being told along the way. While I didn’t mind the fact that it was in Chinese – I mean, I know the story! – what really peeved me was the Chinese families pushing in line and children forcing their way to the front..

Star Wars Launch Bay Shanghai

Onwards to Tomorrowland, we queued up for Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue, which sadly meant missing the parade, but the newer technology in the ride made it pretty awesome, and because my mum’s blaster didn’t work on the first go, they let us ride it again! We then headed to Star Wars Launch Bay, which is tucked right out of the way of Tomorrowland, which meant it was really quiet; hello 30 second wait to meet Kylo Ren and R2D2!

With the Tron ride queue over 2 hours, we headed back towards the gardens in front of the castle, with the intention of visiting some of the shops in Mickey Avenue, but instead detoured back into Adventureland to watch the Tarzan show, which was pretty incredible! After doing a few of the shops, we headed back to the hotel to sort out checking into our room!

A few Mickey shaped desserts in our tummies, and we headed back into the park for the nighttime show. We stood in the centre of Mickey Avenue to watch it, with a great view of the castle, but as soon as it began, the crowd just turned into a sea of phones in the air, which was a little saddening as no one was watching it, and none of the rest of us could see it properly, so I moved to the side of the street in the end. The show itself was a classic projection show, like Disney Dreams or Celebrate the Magic, with a few new clips from Star Wars and Mulan.
With most of the crowds heading out of the park, but with an hour of opening left, we pegged it back to Tomorrowland with the hopes of getting into the elusive Tron rollercoaster, and despite advertising a 70 min wait time, we were on and off within 40 minutes and WOW IS THAT RIDE WORTH THE HYPE!! Absolutely unbelievable, such a unique and incredible ride.

Shanghai Disneyland Tron ride

With 5 minutes til park close, we managed to sneak in two goes on Buzz (again) before taking a slow walk out of the park, and popping into World of Disney in Disneytown – the Downtown Disney equivalent area – before catching the ferry back to the hotel!

Shanghai Disneyland castle

I’m exhausted but it’s been such a wonderful day! Tomorrow we’ll be up nice and early to get into the park for opening, and another Disney day!

July 16, 2016Lottie 1 Comment

Creating and sharing magic!

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