Travel: Disney World, Florida (part 1 of 3)

Warning: this post is probably going to end up being much, much longer than intended! I knew I’d want to blog about my time at Disney World because it's such an exciting place to have been able to visit, but we packed so much stuff into just four and a half days that now I don't know where to begin! I think I'm going to split it into days, and cover a couple of days per post - that way I’ll also get in some time to gather my thoughts properly.

I haven't been to Disney World in Florida for 15 years (I felt so old when I figured that out!); I still can't believe I didn't make it there during my year studying abroad in the States. I'd definitely planned to, but life happened and I never really had the time and money to spare. When I moved back to England, it seemed even more out of reach, even though my boyfriend is (thankfully) also Disney crazy. His family actually used to have an apartment in Florida, so he's been to Disney World a lot, but financial issues meant they've since had to sell the condo.

Anyway, amazingly, his friend Katie kindly invited us to be a part of her Spring Break trip this year - her parents are part of Disney's "Vacation Club", which is kind of like a cross between getting a holiday on finance and having a timeshare. So they had "points" (how it works is very confusing; I looked it up and was still a bit baffled) to use up, and Katie booked a two-bedroom villa in Disney's "Old Key West" resort for us! It was three couples and two of her single friends - a really nice group. Even with free accommodation, my boyfriend and I were still a bit worried about cost, but we decided it was worth the splurge if it meant going to Disney World together!


Day 1 (Tuesday 15th March 2016)

As everyone’s flights all got in at slightly different times, we decided not to hit any parks on the first day, but instead get settled in the villa and have dinner at Disney Springs (previously Downtown Disney - I think they changed the name in order to appear more family-friendly). We checked out the pool area and had a snack at the bar there. This was the first indicator of just how inflated prices were going to be during the week: $3/£2 for a (tiny) portion of fries; $9/£6.20 for the slightly healthier option of a wrap; $11/£7.50 for an "entrée" of a burger and fries; and anything between $8-14/£6.50-9.50 for an alcoholic drink.* My boyfriend and I had budgeted $50/£35 a day - having taken care of breakfast via Disney's similarly-overpriced groceries delivery option - and while we just about managed to keep to that, it was really tough.

The villa itself was amazing; we were on the top floor of three apartments, a short walk away from the main hotel hub, and everything was beautifully decorated and clean. Katie and her boyfriend were kind enough to let my boyfriend and I have the master bedroom for a couple of nights, as we don't get to spend a lot of time together. It had a king-size bed (which translates to an English Queen size!) and a lovely open-plan bathroom area with a huge tub. No toilet, but it connected to the main bathroom, which had a toilet and a massive shower. The second bedroom contained two (U.S.) Queen beds and an ensuite bathroom, whilst the living room had a pull-out sleeper chair and double sofa bed. The kitchen was really well-stocked with everything you'd need to self-cater - not that we really did!

Anyway, Disney Springs was awesome - much bigger than I remembered! It's basically an eating, drinking, and shopping destination. Katie had made reservations at T-Rex - kind of like the Rainforest Cafe but with dinosaurs. It was good - not anything to write home about but with friendly, quick service and pretty standard food. Katie, her boyfriend Alex, my boyfriend, and I split a big sharing appetizer (which worked out at about $5/£3.50 each) and then my boyfriend (his name's Siegfried, I don't think I've actually ever mentioned that before!) and I split a big ribs and chicken combo entrée, which was about $30/£21 between the two of us. Siegfried had a cocktail but I stuck with Diet Coke; thankfully, even Disney World do free refills!

Afterwards, we just wandered around looking in all of the shops - there was so much incredible Disney merch that I would have loved to get! Everyone was a bit wary of spending their money on the first day, at the first place we visited, so instead we really took advantage of all the free samples! There's an awesome bath bomb shop there called Basin, with a huge sink in the middle where you can try out their hand scrubs. The sugar scrub is amazing - my hands have never felt that soft! And Ghirardelli give out chocolate samples, so make sure you swing by there.

We nearly went to a piano bar at the nearby Disney Boardwalk resort, but by this time it was so late that everyone was pretty tired out, so we headed home to get a (semi!) early night in, ready for our first day in Disney proper!

Day 2 Wednesday 16th March 2016

So everyone in our group had chosen the ticket option where you can only go to one park in a day; as we had four days there, it made sense to do so because Disney World has four main parks: the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood (previously MGM) Studios, Epcot, and the Animal Kingdom. However, Siegfried and I wanted a bit more flexibility, and knew we'd want to spend the majority of our time in the Magic Kingdom, so we got the "park hopper" option. This meant we could spend some time just the two of us, before meeting the rest of the group in whichever park they were at. Siegfried also added the water park option last-minute, as a gift to me - I don't do well in the heat and, being from England, I don't get the chance to visit many water parks!

So on the first morning, we actually decided to head to a water park (Disney World has two: Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach) and join the others in the Magic Kingdom later on in the day. Disney World has what it calls "extra magic hours", where the parks sometimes close later (or open earlier) for those staying at a Disney World resort, so we could be in the Magic Kingdom until 1am that night. Now I love Disney, but I doubt even I could do 16 hours of it (that being said, the rest of our group did!). However, it took us a good couple of hours to make it to Typhoon Lagoon; first it was closed for refurbishment, and then Blizzard Beach was closed (for some still unknown reason!) so Typhoon was opened as compensation! Eventually we got there and had an awesome time - it was so quiet as it’s off-season right now, and we managed to do pretty much every ride at least once, as well as riding the lazy river and braving the giant wave pool.

After a quick shower and change back at the apartment, we headed to the Magic Kingdom. Disney World has a transportation system that includes a monorail, boats, and buses, that connect every resort, the parks, and other recreational areas like Disney Springs. So we jumped on a bus and in about twenty minutes were at our first - and my personal favourite - ride, Peter Pan's Flight!

I have to pause here and comment on how Disney World has changed the way you do FastPasses since I last went. The system is now called “FastPass+”, and the main difference is that you now pre-book your FastPasses online, as opposed to going and get a paper ticket at the various rides' kiosks in the park, on the day. When you get to the ride during your allotted hour, you scan your admission ticket (or, in our case, your “MagicBand” - an electronic wristband you can get that acts as an all-in-one Disney tool. It can link to a card and be a payment option, unlock your Disney resort room, be your admission ticket to the parks, etc.) and off you go! Whilst I think it’s ultimately sped the process up, it does take a while to get your head around. You can only make three FastPass reservations a day, and they all have to be in one park - even if you have the park hopper option (as we did), and might be visiting more than one park that day. You can't make any more reservations until you've used up your three original choices, and then you have to queue for a FastPass+ kiosk in the park. Often, by the time you do this there aren't any good rides or slots left open - so, basically, you get three FastPasses a day!

My favourite part of Peter Pan's Flight - London!

So, we'd sacrificed the day's first FastPass (Space Mountain) in order to spend more time at the water park; we figured we'd get time to go on it either later that day or when we returned another day. Peter Pan's flight was (like always) amazing, although I actually think Paris' is slightly better. After that, I wanted to go on the Little Mermaid ride, as they don't have one in Paris, and I'd heard it's like Peter Pan's flight but for Ariel! It also only had a 10 minute wait displayed, so we got into the queue and were at the front really quickly. Hilariously, we were then led through to "Ariel's grotto" to meet her! We'd accidentally walked into the wrong part of the Little Mermaid area! I was thrilled anyway, and after some photo ops and a quick chat about seashells, we didn't bother trying the actual ride and went straight to our next FastPass - Big Thunder Mountain! Another favourite, this didn't disappoint either, and we got some great footage with Siegfried's GoPro. Afterwards, it was about time to eat, so we met up with the group and headed to the Harbour House for fish and chips (chicken nuggets for me). 

Photo creds: Siegfried Huffnagle

Everyone wanted to watch the fireworks, but as there was thirty minutes to go, Siegfried, Katie's friend Stacie, and I wanted to see if the queue to meet Anna and Elsa (I unashamedly love Frozen!) was any shorter due to people leaving to get a good spot for the fireworks. Unfortunately, they'd closed off the back of Fantasyland (where the "Princess fairytale hall" is) completely, but this did mean we got a good view of the light show that's been added in before the fireworks. This is when they project a bunch of images/movie clips onto the castle, making it look like it's transforming into all of these different things and showing parts of Disney songs and movies too. I would thoroughly recommend it, it's so cleverly done and a really amazing addition to the entertainment Disney World offers. The fireworks followed, and were also incredible (but they always are!); after this, Stacie, Siegfried, and I ran back to Fantasyland to queue for Anna and Elsa. Having met them (Disney's face characters are so well trained, they were turning out some brilliant lines about visiting Arendelle and the like!), we reunited with the rest of the group to do a few more rides in the time the park was open for resort guests. Oh, and I finished off the day with an ice cream sandwich the size of my head, which is always appreciated!

That's it for part one - I said it would be a long one! Check back for part two in the next few days...

*I should probably point out that the prices here are recounted as they are in America - that is, without tax. Florida's sales tax rate is 6%, so the final price is always plus that. E.g. a sandwich is $6/£4.20; 6% of that is 36 cents/25 pence, so the final price is actually $6.36/£4.45.