Florida, Disney's Animal Kingdom, a review.........

Thursday we headed over to Disney's Animal Kingdom.  We went straight over to Everest to get fast passes for this epic coaster, then back to do the truck safari.

On route we got the kids up and ready for being Wilderness Explorers (foc), where they go around collecting badges, in exchange for learning about various animals, and countries etc.   Scarlett particularly got into it, and I loved that the Wilderness Explorers themselves were actually in the same uniform as Russell from UP :)

Everest and the Safari (obviously) are in Asia and Africa within the parks, and having travelled to both continents I can say they have got the scenery and surrounds breath-takingly bang on!

The Safari was amazing, and having been to the Serengeti, I can tell you they got that so right too, and much to my amazement we did see lion and cheetah, elephant, rhino, hippos etc.  Really well done, huuuuge enclosures and bumpy roads, just like the real Africa.  (Well not enclosures in Africa but you get my drift)!

Everest Coaster itself was pretty hardcore, having said that my 5yo rode it twice and my 9yo wouldn't!  I went on first with Scarlett and having whizzed around and then stopped at a precarious point, midway, she said "mummy I'm scared", I could only respond with "me too".  Not going to win mum of the year (yet again), but as I said she went straight on again with her father :)

Whilst in Asia we also rode the Kali River Rapids, and got absolutely soaked, but in the heat over here you are dry again within the hour and it is actually quite refreshing.

In Dinoland we saw a magical musical version of Nemo, just fantastic acting and visuals, and in Discovery Island we saw a film of "It's Tough to be a Bug".  Over here what they call 3D we would call 4D, as it is much more than just the visual, expect special effects all around you!   We also saw Festival of the Lion King with sing alongs, acrobatics and audience participation.

As well as meeting Jamaican Kennedy, who lived in Peckham and supported QPR, a top day out!  Oh, and how can I forget, the kids met the *actual* Mickey and Minnie* yayyyy!
Annie x

Florida, Disney's Epcot - wow - a review Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow!

Who knew that EPCOT was an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.   In my head it was another space centre adventure but oh my, what a great day out and where to start.........

We came on the Tuesday after we arrived.  Having been a full on first few days we decided to have a lazy morning and get there at 12.30pm.   We headed straight to Sourin for the fastpass, but they had already run out for the day!!!   So we will have to go back, that and the Test Track were recommended as the best rides there, and again we couldn't get on to it.  So big note to self, get there early next time and get those two rides fast passed and done.  (See bottom of this blog that has now been updated)!

Having said that, we still had a fabulous time.   We more or less walked straight onto Mission Space a flight simulated space launch.  In flights of 4 you are assigned different roles to take part during the flight.  You can try the Green Team for a milder mission, or the Orange Team for a more hardcore version.   We did Green then Orange, and without spoiling it the G-Force in the Orange launch was unbelievable!   We are definitely going to do it again when we go back.

Aurora or Sleeping Beauty to you and me :)

After that we had a stroll around the world in World Showcase.  There are lots of different restaurants here, and also some rides or videos to watch, showcasing each country.
Mexico  - restaurant looked fab, and some good merchandise.  You can also take a tame boat ride discovering the sites of Mexico (Disney style) *winks*
Norway - a pretty hardcore ride hear showcasing the Vikings, Jasper didn't enjoy it, but he'd been learning about the Vikings at school which is what had frightened him most!
China - a very interesting 14 minute film about China (Disney Style ;) and several restaurants
Germany - not a lot here though the boys did manage to grab a beer, as you do!
Italy, America, Japan, Morocco and France followed, but the kids were getting a bit countried out so we moved swiftly on to good old..
United Kingdom - £1 shop mugs of Keep Calm and Carry On mugs being sold here for $18!!  Still selling Princess Diana pins, and of course a pub - Tudor Style - and a fish and chip shop #standard
We did also manage to find an American Mary Poppins - and could have bought Man Utd or Chelsea shirts, hmmmmm - truthfully though, I get what they are trying to do :)

and finally to Canada a fab 14 minute video here showcasing Canada, and I have to say that we played Canada bingo here, with points if the following were shown -
Bear, Beaver, Salmon (extra points for bear with salmon), Skiing and Mounties (you all know my bessie mate @mediocre_mum is Canadian right)?  In all fairness it was very good and I do quite fancy it.  After all, there is a place called Jasper :)

We intended to stay for dinner then the fireworks, but it soon became evident that it was reservation only.  If you intend to do the same I recommend you make the reservation before you go out!!!   The fireworks were at 9pm, they were fab and only 15 mins, but the kids were shattered by this time.

Fantastic place, I highly recommend it!   Ours came part of our multi-ticket, but otherwise prices shown!  (So far the multi ticket prices bought from the UK are a winner, as we were told they would be)!

Today (second Tuesday) we went back to Epcot for 9am   We headed straight for Soarin grabbed fast passes, but also walked straight on!  It was amazing, absolutely fanstastic simulator showing you what it would be like to fly (soar) over the California skies.  Absolutely breathtaking!   Next we headed over to get fast passes for Test Track.  The time scheduled was for 2.20pm, so in the meantime we took in some more shows.  It was a little bit much some of the shows talking about how they are trying to look after the environment, but as we have witnessed there is very little recycling over here, so a tad annoying.  They recognise that landfill will become a problem, as will running out of energy, but to me they need to do an awful lot more than talking about it (rant over).

Having ridden the hard core Space Mission again, we finally headed over to the Test Track which was just as fab as we heard it was.  You design your own car, which is then put head to head against the others' cars in your car on the test track.  It sounds a bit odd, but it's really good and right up Jasper's street.   Our car managed to beat Chris and Scarlett's car by 2 points #getin!

Definitely a park to enjoy over 2 days, if you are going to get Disney passes, as this is part of Disney.   Although we really enjoyed it, next time we might leave the Disney part out, due to such high prices, and there is so much else to do.  Of course we can say this having already done it.  I'll leave it to you to ponder.
Annie x

Florida Disney, Universal and beyond - The Big Trip - 16th to 30th August 2013

Well we finally bit the bullet.  This year we decided to do the Florida "thing".   We couldn't really afford it when we booked back in January, but as Chris rightly said, "once the flights are booked we'll find a way". Jasper is 9 and Scarlett is 5 so we reckoned good ages, also the fact that some of the parks considered an adult to be 10yrs old kind of forced our arm!

Anyhoo, we are here now and I'm typing this sat by the pool, 7pm at night, whilst the kids splash about in the pool!  We chose a Villa over a hotel as we are Villa owners and it suits our lifestyle.  Although on holiday I still like to cook and make packed lunches and fill the slow cooker for the evenings after a long day out.   We will eat out occasionally but this suits us.  The Villa we chose is enormous, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, huuuuge lounge and kitchen, just amazing.   It cost £921 for the 2 weeks, which isn't cheap, but compared to our Villa in Crete, it's very reasonable!   Location is great for all the parks too, plus the local Walmart (standard), and a local Bar, which we've yet to try out.  I've found a lovely bottle of white for $3.97, I am seriously a cheap date!  You can see details of the Villa here.

Scroll down for tips for before and during your trip?   But see here for individual reviews of where we visited.

Universal Islands of Adventure
Universal Studios
Disney's Magic Kingdom
Disney's Epcot
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Disney's Typhoon Lagoon (water park)
Seaworld
Seaworld's Aquatica (water park)
Kennedy Space Centre (NASA)
Shopping

TIPS FOR BEFORE AND WHILST YOU ARE THERE!
Tolls
There aren't that many toll roads but there is one very near to the airport.  Having been here 10 days we've passed about 6.  If you are hiring a car you can ask for tolls to be included.  For around $15 you can avoid the tolls and have them added to your debit/credit card.  We opted for this and been very stress free!
Travelling with Little Ones to Parks
If you have children of different ages, you may not be able to ride all of the rides together.   They are set up beautifully for this here and have Child Swap Rooms.  You travel the line until you are almost on, and then you see the room.  You then go on with the child able to ride whilst the parent and other child wait until they are done.  The waiting parent then walks straight on.  Some of the rooms are quite soulless so you may want to weigh up using this option or the second parent using the single rider queue instead (we used both)
WiFi
In Disney parks there is free WiFi under "Disney Guest" (except Typhoon Lagoon which was a bit patchy but it is the oldest park)!  In Universal there isn't any free WiFi, though I noticed today you could sign up for 30 mins for $5 but I could get over it to be honest!

If you have little ones, and want to treat them to a few extras, book them well in advance, as you won't be able to whilst out there, or rather is unlikely and not worth the disappointment!
Princess Tips
For our little Princess we booked a makeover, details here!  We had the Crown Package for $60 and it well worth it!
Astronaut Tips
For Jasper we pre-booked lunch with an Astronaut at Kennedy Space Centre.  Details here!
Dinner and Fireworks Tips
If you want to stay for dinner at the parks before watching the fireworks, make you reservations before you go too!   We've tried to get a reservation here and they are all fully booked!
Fastpass Tips
At Universal you have to pay for their fastpass option, however at Disney they are FREE!  You can only get one at a time, and most of the big, popular rides have a fast pass option.   You simply put in your ticket and prints you a fast pass with a time that you then go back to the ride and go in the fast pass lane.  It gives you an hour timeslot so it works very well.
Parking
Be sure to make a note of where you are parked, or better still take a pic on your phone, it is all to easy to be eager to get going, then later on forget where the car is!
Shopping Tips
We went to an outlet place today and bought some Timberland boots and some Converse for Scarlett and I. Checked at Information in the food court about Boggy Creek (no deals), found a card for 15% discount at Timberland if you spend over $79.99!!!   We'd spent $160!  I was all for going back, refunding and re-buying but Chris's morals said no.  Have since found out that they would have been happy to accommodate us.  So "moral of the story" check around for discount coupons, and/or go to Tourist Information to check. At the Premium Outlet Mall in Orlando this was in the Food Court.

beware of the car hire jockies!
We had pre-booked car hire through Flight Centre, but due to previous experiences of car hire depots in America I was on high alert, and so I should have been!   Although we knew we had the right car booked, they still tried to up-sell us bigger cars, warning that the one we'd booked wouldn't hold our luggage (utter garbage) and trying to up-sell a vehicle with built in sat nav, not necessary.   Oh and of course saying we hadn't enough insurance!!!!   The happy fellow we first met at Alamo turned into grumpy surly git when we insisted on picking up what we paid for.  We ended up with a huuuuge Chrysler which would have fitted our luggage if doubled!  Little note Alamo - never again!!!!!

Having been back a few weeks, I am missing Florida so much.   We have pretty much decided that we will definitely go back, but next time take a week out somewhere else first, Naples, The Keys?  Then a week at the parks, possibly excluding Disney?   We are happy we did everything we did, but could save a lot of money next time.

So much for a trip of a lifetime #hooked!

Annie x