Florida

[Pomegranatepompom]

@DBML
@puzzledandoissedoff

And anyone else 😊

Wondered if you’d like to continue the Florida discussion?

I’ve not cancelled August yet, I know it’s only a slim chance of going.

Btw I made some pooh bear toast, it was pretty similar and easy to do.

@Babyitsawildworld

I’m offended you had to ask 😁

Good choice of restaurant! What do you order? My favourite is the twin lobster tails if I’m feeling flush! (Or the shrimp pasta if I’m not) and ALWAYS the almond encrusted cheesecake. That is a great dessert.

I’m sorry @endoflevelbaddy

Maybe next year?

We're due to go in October. Will be our only chance to go for a number of years due to eldest starting secondary. We don't actually want to go as I think it's too risky, but I don't want to lose the £1000 deposit. Rest of money due the end of June. All booked through Virgin villas.

Disney programme on radio 2 at the mo. Just caught it while cooking.

I don't have a holiday booked sadly as we're saving to go in a few years when our children are older but I'm going to join and love vicariously through you! I used to go every two years growing up then introduced my now husband to it, so we got engaged there and had a Disney honeymoon at the Yacht Club. We always stay onsite but now we have two preschool age children I'm not sure that our budget will allow it for a while!

Favourite Disney park: I honestly can't choose! Maybe Epcot as it reminds me of our honeymoon
Favourite Disney resort: Yacht Club
Favourite Disney restaurant: California Grill
Favourite Disney quick-serve: Pecos Bill
Favourite Disney snack: Mickey Premium
Favourite Disney ride at MK: Splash Mountain
Favourite Disney ride at Epcot: Soarin'
Favourite Disney ride at Animal Kingdom: Everest
Favourite Disney ride at Hollywood Studios: Tower of Terror
Favourite Disney water park attraction: Crush n Gusher
Favourite Disney queue: I'm going to go with ToT but this is a really tricky one. I love the Everest queue but it's too hot, and I like Space Mountain but the end is monotonous!
Favourite Disney show: Wishes (I don't care that it's no longer there!)
Favourite Character meet: Tinkerbell

It’s so hard to know what to do about this years holiday.
We’ve booked extras like the Halloween party and dessert party’s and we’d lose all of that money.
Thankfully BA will give us a travel voucher and it will only cost £50 for Disney to move our holiday, so we’ll probably end up about £400 out of pocket plus lose the dining plan.

@BabyItsAWildWorld lion king - yes that’s my absolute favourite - I always get very tearful and cuddle my DC. DS is now 9 but he’s still tolerating me at the mo !

@endoflevelbaddy so sorry for you. How disappointing.
@elizabethrose I’d be tempted to wait and see. Might have a vaccine in Autumn.

@pinksaffire Halloween party is fab. We were going to book the dessert party & HS

@DBML I was too nervous to go when DV very little, their swimming has improved now.

Hope I haven’t missed anyone- will scroll back.

Nice to be on a thread like this, was about to give up on MN

We’ve decided we might do Disney cooking on a Sunday afternoon. Could post pics??

@Wtfdidwedo you might get a great deal if you book Jan/Feb. We went when DS was almost 3 and DD was a baby, cast of flights, car hire and off site hotel was £2700

Of course flights might be more costly now 🙁

Well after Boris speech I’ve asked BA for a travel voucher and we’ll phone Disney this week to change. I can’t afford to take 4 weeks off work to include quarantine.
I know it’s the right decision but I feel very flat!

I didn’t think the quarantine aspect was clear but I couldn’t hear properly, DD was watching something very loud on her iPad

No it really wasn’t clear at all.
We’ve taken the decision, mainly to protect our money.
I’m trying to look on the positive in that it’s more time to save spending money, lose weight and I can use some of the money already saved to replace our flooring downstairs.

Joining in, have been twice in recent years and musing about when to go again...

Favourite Disney park: Magic Kingdom, but especially love all the parks at night.
Favourite Disney resort: Port Orleans Riverside, Alligator Bayou, love the small swimming pools and the food court, and the landscaping in the bayou.
Favourite Disney restaurant: California Grill - Sunday brunch
Favourite Disney quick-serve: Riverside Mill Food Court at Port Orleans.
Favourite Disney snack: any venti iced Starbucks drink (thank you dining plan snack credit)
Favourite Disney ride at MK: Big Thunder Mountain
Favourite Disney ride at Epcot: Test Track
Favourite Disney ride at Animal Kingdom: Kilimanjaro Safari
Favourite Disney ride at Hollywood Studios: Tower of Terror
Favourite Disney water park attraction: Typhoon Lagoon surf pool
Favourite Disney queue: my aim is not to queue - we are experts with the MDE app!
Favourite Disney show: Lion King
Favourite Character meet: Tigger

@DBML I love Narcoocees as I have such wonderful memories of watching Wishes on the balcony there with my parents and my Dss and my DH. Makes me tearful thinking about it actually as I can't see my parents now.

We've always been on the Disney Dining Plan, I have the shrimp pasta. I remember when the boys could have surf and turf on the plan, they loved that, but they stopped that now!

@Wtfdidwedo Crush n Gusher was the Typhoon Lagoon ride I was trying to think of!

Some other favourite Disney memories:
Getting the boats! I love Disney transportation. Boats from Wilderness lodge to Magic Kingdom and The Contemporary.
I even love the Disney buses! I love that feeling of being at the bus stop at 7am so excited all ready to go and cheering when The Animal Kingdom Bus (or whichever) turns up!!
And the monorail! My boys loved this so much when they were little, it was like a ride in itself.

Also the Hoop Dee Doo Revue. We've done this every time- 4 times now! We always just laugh so much. It's felt different each time we've been as they've grown up but always so much lovely laughing together!

So many happy memories .

We loved Hoop De Doo as well! Also Mickey's Backyard BBQ was a lot of fun when I was younger. Can't wait to share it all with my children.

I found my peoples! I love our Disney holidays. We went last year so wanting to go next year but I am waiting patiently and hopefully for the free dining offer so that we can book for next August. I have a week booked at DLP in July, it’s looking less and less likely.

Favourite Disney park: Epcot, especially during the Food and Wine festival!
Favourite Disney resort: toss up between the Poly and Beach Club. Just love the vibe
Favourite Disney restaurant: O’hana (dinner) or California Grill (brunch)
Favourite Disney quick-serve: Satu’li Canteen
Favourite Disney snack: so hard to choose but probably anything from Plaza ICP or Ample Hills
Favourite Disney ride at MK: Seven Dwarfs
Favourite Disney ride at Epcot: Test Track
Favourite Disney ride at Animal Kingdom: Flight of Passage
Favourite Disney ride at Hollywood Studios: Slinky Dog (but think this will be replaced by Rise of Resistance when I finally get to ride it)
Favourite Disney water park attraction: Crush n Gusher
Favourite Disney queue: Test Track
Favourite Disney show: gotta to be Happily Ever, before that Wishes
Favourite Character meet: Alice and Mad Hatter

Enjoying reading everyone's favourites- will help with the planning when we do get around to rebooking. We were winging it a bit as was a first for us (I've been as a kid but over 30 years ago), and I'm hoping we can get a Paris trip in this year for our Disney fix.

We haven’t done Hoop de Doo. My DH refuses. He hates people singing and dancing (misery guys). We went to see Wicked in London and following the interval he refused to go back in and watch the rest lol. So, as he’s pretty good and will go along with anything else, I let him off the theatricals.

Some of the most fun things I’ve ever done at WDW, are Wild Africa Trek at AK and Dive Quest - snorkelling in The Seas tank at Epcot. I tend to book extras as birthday gifts to myself 😁

Ok...what’s your worsts?

Worst restaurant: Nine Dragons Epcot
Worst snack: The cupcakes ... I just can’t get through them...sickly!
Worst ride: Prime Evil Whirl...so bad, but I love it anyway.
Worst queue theming: Soarin’
Worst thing about Disney: Crowds

I haven’t included resorts as I love them all!

Oh worsts is a good one...
Worst restaurant: Tony's Town Square, had an awful meal there and never returned
Worst snack: Churros, I hate cinnamon
Worst ride: It's Tough to Be a Bug, I hate the stingers
Worst queue theming: Splash Mountain, but most outdoor queues
Worst thing about Disney: Annual price increases!

Worst restaurant: Yak and Yeti, Animal Kingdom. My rice was crunchy and my daughter’s chicken nuggets tasted like fish. It also rained terribly the night we were there and we waited so long for our table, we missed Rivers of Light (which we had preferred seating for 😡) The mango pie was good though.
Worst snack: I feel like a traitor but I don’t get the hype over dole whip...I agree the cupcakes are all really sickly
Worst ride: re: Not a a ride but an attraction- the enchanted tiki room -WTAF??! Prime Evil Whirl...We call it Primeval Hurl!
Worst queue theming: I love slinky dog but the queue is god awful with little to no shade!
Worst thing about Disney: the expense but it’s my happy place so I’m a bit stuck.

Haha! I was going to put the expense myself! But then I remembered it’s worse to have spent all the money and then you’re shoe-horned into a crowd at certain times of the year!

Just 4-5 years ago we paid £2000 for a week at Animal Kingdom Resort (2 adults and an 11 year old). Flights and SUV included and we were given a savannah view room. It was over Halloween, so that also included Mickey’s Not So Scary.
It didn’t include park tickets as we already had annual passes. But what a bargain!
Nothing like that these days 😭

@DBML -it’s gone up a lot hasn’t it? ! Our first onsite stay was in July 2012; 12 nights at Caribbean Beach, quick service dining plan and tickets for 4 of was just shy of £3K. Our trip last year cost us 5x that! I am seriously and actively looking into DVC resale as we speak.

Crowd wise, we’ve either been quite lucky or perhaps it just doesn’t bother me much. In the last 4 years, we have gone the last week of August and the first week of September which is bit quieter as many of the American schools are back by then. However, prior to that we went either Easter or July and Easter was definately busier. We’ve always been able to get our Fastpass choices and have been lucky with on the day fast passes. We tend to also do rope-drop and leave early afternoon and come back in the evening as we struggle with the heat. Last year, we had the threat from hurricane Dorian and the parks were temporarily shut for a day. It was eerily quiet the day after they opened, it felt so unnatural. I think definitely prefer the parks with a bit of a crowd! Having sad that, my colleague went at Christmas and MK hit capacity. She said she felt unsafe as she could barely move without touching someone. She sad it was awful especially in the heat and I can imagine that.

@derenstar

Wow! It’s amazing how much more expensive it is. These days we only have the odd night on-site as it’s just so expensive. I tend to book a condo in Davenport for our stay, which means we can reduce the cost of the holiday substantially and it’s nice now for DS to have his own bedroom and space. We also are happy to fly indirect to save £££.

We’ve been over Christmas and went to Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day. We stayed on property at Port Orleans FQ and so we used extra magic hours. Until around 10am we were having a great time.
Then it was like an explosion of people. No matter where you went, you couldn’t move! So we left MK about 11am as it was hitting capacity and went back to the resort. It was crazy and I’m not sure I’d attempt Christmas Day in the parks again!

I love Caribbean Beach. I know it’s been through a lot lately, but it was where I spent my honeymoon. Very special memories and our son was just turned 3.

This is making me want to go back sooo badly.

I’ve always thought being there for a hurricane (in Disney) would be quite exciting?! But I do feel sorry for some of the coastal residents. You can still see the scars of Irma there now.

@derenstar could you share your views on dvc? We’ve briefly considered.

Working today - will post my worsts when able and will look forward to catching up on this happy thread !

The biggest leap came when Harry Potter opened and Universal's tickets went up from about £90 for a two park ticket to £200 in such a short space of time. Then Disney followed with using Avatar as a bit of an excuse I think, and the prices just seem to be exponentially growing every year now. I remember the mid 2000s with a $2 exchange rate and buying so much merchandise and clothes in the outlets.

We normally go late August when the summer crowds are winding down but there's often a tropical storm. Luckily we've managed to miss all the major hurricanes but I remember flying home as Katrina was coming in and the coverage on the news. Tropical storms are a bit of a welcome relief from the heat to be honest, and a reminder of home

Last year we had terrible weather right through the summer. Three weeks straight of rain, often starting as early as 10-11am and going on into the evening on some days. It was tropical storm, followed by weather systems over the Gulf, followed by tropical storm. We still had a great time though.

DVC was expensive!! We looked at two weeks worth of points a year and that came to around £80,000, with annual maintenance payments in the region of £2000-£3000 if I remember correctly.
The main draw for us was that, those points could be used at Disney’s most beautiful hotels and places like Aulani.
However, in the end we decided that because we don’t have £80,000, it probably wasn’t a great idea. 😂
For going to the talk though, we did get free ice creams and a $100 Disney gift card to spend!