Follow us on our journey & holiday of a a lifetime taking our little girl to the most magical place in the world ..... Walt Disney World Florida.
Hope you enjoy our planning, lead-up to & our holiday
Thought I would do a quick apartment tour for those back home wanting to know what it was like where we stayed.
We stayed in the Lake Buena Vista Resort & Spa in a two bedroom apartment and I have to say it's been the best ever. I don't think we will ever go back to a hotel with just the one room again.
We're on the 11th floor in building 3 so have some great views and due to the position of the building the sun streams in the windows in the morning from about 6am and lasts pretty much all day.
Views just taken from the balcony:
We've been able to eat in some nights when we've been exhausted and not wanting to go anywhere. We've been able to have breakfast every morning sat out on the balcony, i've kept on top of ALL my washing so I won't have the dreaded 'home from holiday washing pile' to tackle and best of all Lauren has had her own bedroom so at night we've not disturbed her once she's gone to bed with the lights and TV on.
We're 10 minutes door to door for the Disney & Seaworld parks and about 20 minutes to both Universal parks. We've got Wal*Mart directly opposite which has been very handy and also the resort is right next door to the Buena Vista Resort Outlets with a range of shops.
The pool is great as well and features a Pirates Ship with a water slide which Lauren has loved the last few days we've spent by the pool.
Couldn't fault them at all and wouldn't hesitate to return.
This is the view from the front door:
The lounge area:
View from the other side of the lounge looking toward the front door & dining area:
Dining area:
Our Bedroom (with such a massive bed - I can't even tell if Steve is in it at night we're that far away from each other lol)
Our bathroom (looking from the bedroom)
Jacuzzi bath which takes aggggges to drain:
Sink area, huge walk in shower & toilet:
Walk in wardrobe with safe, hoover & ironing board (also very handy and big enough to store the suitcases in):
Kitchen area:
I just LOVE the top loading washing machines - a full wash takes 20 minutes and cleans everything really well plus if you stick it on and a few minutes later realise you have more to add you can just open the lid and stick it in :o)
So we decided to have a look online to see if they had any tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party before we leave and the only dates they did have were for the next night, the 18th so we went ahead and booked :-D. The party started when the park closed at 7pm and finished at midnight.
We arrived at the park for around 6.30pm I think to collect our tickets from the desk. The chap that issued them told us a little about the party seeing as we had never been before - he said there were two parades, one at 8.30pm and one at 10.30pm. He advised we missed the 8.30 performance and make use of the low crowds to queue for rides and that by 10.30 the parade crowd is a lot quieter due to the people with younger kids having left. He also said the very first thing we should do was head over to the character signing for the Seven Dwarf - these characters only ever come out at special times and you'll never see them in the normal park hours and because of this the queue gets really long.
We got out tickets and headed for the turnstiles - it did feel really special seeing hundreds of people leave the park after their day and us being special enough to enter just as the park was closing. The guy on the ticket desk said in a normal day for this time of the year the park has around 55,000 people but on special occasions like tonight the max tickets sold are 24,000!!!!
As we entered we were given wrist bands showing we were part of MVMCP and that way we couldn't be asked to leave like everyone else at 7.
Pictures for the Seven Dwarf started at 7 so that was the first place we headed for - it was right beside 'Big Thunder Mountain' and 'Splash Mountain' and both of those queues for the rides were only 5 minutes so whilst Lauren & I joined the queue, Steve went on both rides.
We were asked to show our wrist bands as we joined the queue and already it was around half an hour long.
Steve did both rides and still joined us whilst we were in the line for about the last 20 minutes - as he walked past the end of the line he heard someone being told the queue time was 2 hrs so I am really pleased we got there when we did.
The Seven Dwarfs were very cute. They entertained and were in character the whole time so they were fun to watch.
There was something quite special walking round in the dark knowing only certain people were allowed in - they had complementary hot chocolate and cookies all over the place as we could have as many as we liked - it reminded me of being at home just before Christmas - we used to pick Lauren up from school and head off to do some Christmas shopping wandering round with a cup of hot chocolate that we bought from Costa .. except this was far better - Christmas Decorations and Christmas music everywhere and the buzz of Magic Kingdom.
We stopped by Cinderella's Castle where the Characters were performing a show (this is only a brief clip of the end of the show and I know the lightening is a bit naff at the beginning but it gives you an idea of what it was like):
Seeing the snow falling around was just so special, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, it was really lovely.
After the show we wandered around to Tomorrow Land because people were starting to get their spots for the first parade. Steve went on Space Mountain with a very small queuing time. I think he walked straight on.
Afterwards we just walked around the various lands soaking up the atmosphere and getting some hot chocolate & cookies.
Around 8.30pm we headed back to the Castle so we could get a good position for the shows, fireworks & parades.
In January of this year the Magic Kingdom started 'The Magic, The Memories & You' show, on Cinderella's Castle. It is presented just before Wishes. The show is projected on the Castle itself and it is just simply amazing - We saw it the first day we visited MK and even though this was the second time we saw it, it still blew me away. It was just magical and very clever.
I did take a video of it - it's not brilliant quality and can be a bit shaky in parts but it's quite hard keeping your arms above you for a lengthy time. The video is 10 minutes long but worth a watch if you have the time. I'm not sure how long they're going to keep showing it for.
Straight after 'The Memories, The Magic & You' was 'Wishes' - again this never fails to amaze me and that night was even better, they used more fireworks and instead of them just being over the castle they literally went everywhere, to the side of us and behind us. It really was lovely. I did take a video but I won't bore you with another one ;o)
I said in my pervious MK blog I didn't think the Parades were as good as they used to be but the one they put on for MVMCP was excellent - they had far more floats and as each one went past they had different Christmassy smells coming from them. They had cinnamon smells, gingerbread ones, vanilla, spices etc. The last float also had Santa on his sleigh so that was really nice.
I did take some photos but they didn't come out all that good due to it being so dark but here are a few that come out best:
As Santa was the last float the crowd were getting up and walking behind and following down main street and we were lucky enough to be right behind. So there we were walking down Main Street in the snow :-D behind Santa with the parade still going on in front - it was amazing :-D
The snow was really life like as well - it was all fluffy and when it landed on you it dissolved.
So we're really pleased we got the tickets - seeing MK with Christmas Decorations in the dark, with snow and fantastic shows and parades really was something special.
Coming up next Islands of Adventure & Universal Studios.
Well the drive into the park looked really promising, it was quiet n the car-park despite it being a good hour after it opened so we hope that meant the queues would be nice a low for the rides.
The first ride we went on was the water slide that sent you through the dolphin tank and you were meant to see them through a see through slide. The only bit that was see through was right at the very end and it wasn't very long, plus with the speed you whizz past you're lucky to get a look at anything. So we were disappointed and found the adverts really mis-leading.
The park was really very quiet - we went in the lazy river so we could get to another ride you were meant to ride the river in a rubber ring. The only problem was the current was so strong you were lucky enough to be able to stand up let alone struggle into a rubber ring - Lauren got carted off at one point and she couldn't even hold onto the wall to stop herself :(
We probably did 3 or 4 slides in total and none of them were particually enjoyable.
Lauren stayed and played in the kiddie area for about 15 minutes before getting bored which is unusual for her.
We took at look on the map and realised there were only two slides left we hadn't done so Steve went to do them (I had lost interest by now) and Lauren went into the swimming pool with the waves, which after Typhoon Lagoons huge wave machine the other day it really was quite lame.
So after about an hour & a half we all agreed we'd rather just get ready & leave. We found it really boring and what they did have we didn't enjoy.
So thats two parks owned by Seaworld we've done this holiday and not liked, and we certainly won't be doing either parks again - they just don't seem to 'get it' as fair as we're concerned so we shall be sticking to Disney in the future :o)
I'll do another blog after this evenings for Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party - I won't add it to this boring post LOL
