An American Tale 15/14

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American Holiday, Blogger, Going home, holiday, Holiday Blog, Last Day of Holiday

(yeah… so I can’t count… don’t judge me… Day 15…)

Finally the last day of our holiday had come… we had to be out of the house by 10am, so a manic morning was had cleaning, stripping beds, packing and cleaning some more…

Then we headed to some of the cheesy ‘gift’ shops we’d driven past everyday, We opted for the Mermaid one…

Classy huh! haha…. It wasn’t actually a fun as we’d hoped and all a bit tacky which was a shame, never mind though… we decided to head back to have one last American Diner Lunch…

After brunch it was time to head to the airport and begin our looooong journey home…

And well, that’s it…. I hope you enjoyed our American Tale… I know I did….

Here’s a few things I learnt whilst on my holiday…

*Americans are a happy happy bunch of people

*Disney will make you feel like an excited child

*Getting engaged on Christmas Day is a cliche but i bloody love it!

*All American food tastes sweet even things that shouldn’t

*Portions are BIG

*Standing on your feet for 11hrs a day in a queue means your will have achey feet

*Orlando people DO NOT dress up, ever, even on Christmas Day

*The petrol is crazy cheap

*You will never be able to thank your in-laws for sending you on the holiday of a life time but hope that they know how utterly thankful you are!

 

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An American Tale 14/14

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blog, Disney Holiday, Engaged, Family Holiday, holiday, Holiday Blogger, Magic Kingdom, new year, New Year in Disney, Orlando Holiday, Walt Disney

So…. Our last full day had arrived…the first day of 2016… How time flies when you’re having fun!

Unfortunately we spent the majority of the day packing and trying to squeeze in everything we bought into our cases (who’s smart idea was it to buy a Christmas Tree… ha!) Luckily I hadn’t brought a lightsaber (cough cough… ha) 

When we weren’t packing we were playing (being beaten) at pool and table tennis in the games room/garage. We enjoyed one last swim in the pool that I knew I’d miss and then, because we felt like we should, we headed back to Disney one last time to really say our goodbyes….

We were clever and booked the fast pass for 2 of our favourite rides (Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain) but first up we decided to catch the Magic Kingdom World Railroad on a tour of the park…

After that we did the rides (as good as we remembered and even better when you didn’t have to queue) and then headed towards the huge paddle boat which we’d been wanting to ride since our first night in Disney…

On a tour round the lake my love was in his Shipwrights element! and it was all quite dreamy being all light up on the dark lake!

After the boat ride (with a feather friend nearby) we watched the lovely new years day fireworks which were all about making a wish and that wish coming true!

Then it was time to say farewell to and get a cheesy photo in front of the castle…
Then it was back down Mainstreet, a few more shops and one last portion of Disney Fries…

Then we really did say goodbye to Walt one last time…

 

An American Tale 13/14

Tags

American Holiday, blog, holiday, Holiday Blog, House of Blues, New Years, New years Eve, Orlando, Orlando Holiday

New Years Eve and very nearly the end of our holiday! 😦

I honestly cant remember what we did on New Years Eve in the morning (That’s what happens when you’ve been back to work for half a week) but as there’s no photographic evidence I’m guessing it’s safe to say we had a very lazy morning, eggs for brekkie then book/pool kinda action… as the day wore on we decided to tidy ourselves up a bit and go out and have a little NYE fun….

I’d booked us a table at The House of Blues, and whilst we would have loved to have gone to one of the bigger parks and see the NYE fireworks, we didn’t feel it was worth the over filled parks, pushy shovey people and then queueing to get home for over an hour…. plus I wanted to have a celebratory drink with my fiancé and toast in the new year with him… something he couldn’t really do if he was having to drive us all home….

So we headed back to Downtown Disney and as one of the only Disney destinations that wasn’t doing fireworks we were pleasantly surprised at the easy car parking situation! Yay!

We decided to do a bit of shopping first, after a brief trip into the Harley Davidson shop with my love (who being a boy needed to sit on the massive motorbikes) we split up so the girls could do girly shopping, the boys, boy shopping… I headed back to a shop that had caught my eye on an earlier visit and preceded to treat myself to a couple of playsuits and a fringed suede jacket! bags in arms I then headed to the House of Blues and got myself a daiquiri and watched the bands set up outside whilst waiting for the others to join us….

We then headed in and had ourselves a proper little feast…. I went all authentic and had spinach and artichoke dip to start and shrimp and grits for main! Yum!

Tummies full we headed back to the house, skyped the future in laws and had ourselves a little pool party!

We saw in the New Year in the pool, listening to the fireworks from across the parks and watching a live feed of them on the ipad! haha…

And there you have it…. 2015 done.

 

An American Tale 12/14

Tags

celebration, Disney, engagement, Family Holiday, holiday, Orlando, Orlando Holiday

We’d really started winding down by this point of the holiday (and I was loving it…. after 11 days non stop) Bless Maxwell, he drove us every day and did a wonderful job… today he was utterly playing the role of taxi driver…

We started by dropping Jasper off at Epcot, he wanted to do a couple more rides there, then go back to Hollywood Studios and do a couple more rides there… The girls wanted to shop so we then dropped them off at an Outlet Mall…. Maxwell and I then had a few hours alone to enjoy some new fiancé time…

We headed to ‘Celebration’ on recommendation from Mrs Keates. Celebration is a candy coloured haven that was built by Disney in the late 80’s early 90’s to house the staff of Disney… it’s all very twee and you kind of feel like you’re in a 1950’s movie or Stepford Wives shows….

It was very cute though, with rocking chairs on the lake and a proper all american diner where we enjoyed some cheese fries and a classic grilled cheese sandwich…

After that we headed home and had the fun task of announcing our engagement (this was literally the first opportunity we had, we literally hadn’t stopped) We poured ourselves a drink, set the self timer up and took a few snaps (all very cheesy and loved up) we then posted the snaps online and celebrated with another cocktail/beer and a dive bomb into the pool!! AMAZING…. a couple of hours flew by and it was time to collect the troops who’d all had a fun day shopping/at the parks….

The evening was spent chilling at home, a home cooked dinner, a big old glass of wine and Hook on DVD. Bliss!

An American Tale 11/14

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blog, Blogger, holiday, Holiday Blog, Holiday Blogger, Orlando, Orlando Holiday, Universal Studios, Universal Studios Orlando

Day 11 = Universal Studios.

We’d dabbled in Universal Studios at the very beginning of our holiday when we did Harry Potter but we didn’t go anywhere else in the park so today was the day to tick off as many things as Universally possible…. with limited days left in our holiday and our energy levels dipping we decided to do just 1 day here and cram it all in!

The day was hot and the queues were long… with no fast passes we had accepted we’d be waiting in queues quite a bit, but I must admit, we hadn’t quite anticipated the 3hr+ wait times…. arghh….

We’d been very sensible and planned a route and order for the day, but that didn’t last long I must admit..

We started the day off with Shrek 4-D… like all the 4-D simulator type shows I’d experienced on our holiday I blooming loved this… 3-D things flying out into your face a seat that moved as you galloped along with Donkey and the odd squirt in the face… obviously fun times a plently….

We’d then planned Transformers but not with that wait, so we saw a few of them lurking round the edge of the block but sadly didn’t get to experience the ride

So…. passing on Transformers we moved on to Krusty Land and joined our favourite yellow animated family….

Joining the HUGE queue we watched an endless string of Simpsons clips as we crawled along in the queue. When we finally got the the front the ride itself was again really good, and saw you crashing your way through Krusty Land and going on the worlds worst/best rollercoaster… Fun times!

After the ride we grabbed some food (and a well deserved cold drink) and checked out a few more Springfield landmarks and well known residents…

Next up was the men in black ride which I presumed was something it wasn’t and actually wasn’t that great, luckily we joined the single rider queue so we only waited about 10 minutes!

Then the boys and girls split up so the boys could queue for Transformers and the girls could check out some shops, grab some tator tots and secure a good spot for the Macy’s Christmas Parade….

After a little food fuel, the sun set and the huge parade began… Borrowed balloons and floats from NYC Macy’s Thanks Giving Parade lined the streets and we sat on the curb for a while and enjoyed the festivities whilst the boys crammed in another couple of rides…. (Transformers, The Mummy & the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit)

When the parade finished Freya and I made a mad dash for the Mummy Ride (on recommendation from the boys) even joining the end of the parade in our rush to take advantage of the incredibly short single rider queue…. Our efforts paid off, we went straight on and this ride was fab!! Lots of mummies jumping out on you and flames everywhere… lots of pitch black backless rollercoastering…. lots of fun!

And there you have it, another day, another park done! yay!

An American Tale 10/14

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blog, blogging, Disney, Disney Blog, Disney Holiday, holiday, Holiday Blogger, Hollywood, Hollywood Studios, Holoday blogger, Lifestyle blog, Star Wars

Day 10 and at this stage the holiday is flying by…

We did something a little different today and most of the party really appreciated it, I’m sure the kids would have initially preferred another day in the parks, but the adults needed a day off from queues and achey feet… and in the end everyone actually really enjoyed the experience and change of scenery!

The day began with the worlds biggest reeces cups (it took us 4 days and 5 people to finish them)

On recommendation from one of my bestest girlies we booked ourselves in for a day of Gator watching at Boggy Creek…

We arrived at the (out in the middle of no where) place and booked ourselves onto a half hour tour… we were warned that seeing a gator wouldn’t be guaranteed as they’re more active during the night and it’s a pretty big lake but we were optimistic and excited as we headed out onto the water…

Luckily we saw 2 whilst speeding round Lake Tohopekaliga, the biggest one was 10ft long!! it was pretty cool to get that close even if they weren’t that active!

Once our tour ended and our feet were back on solid ground we had the opportunity to meet Joe (the handler) and Luigi (the baby gator) Maxwell and I even got to have a hold… little Luigi was pretty darn cute I must admit!!

 After half a day of Boggy Creek fun we moved on to Hollywood Studios for an afternoon of film related fun (and more star wars)

Hollywood Studios visually is blooming lovely, styled in a candy coloured retro 1950’s way… I thought it was all very pretty and had idea that’s what awaited us!!

The first thing we did was enjoy a 3D Muppets show which was actually really funny…. Disney do these super inventive 3D/4D experiences and they’re really clever, surprising you with sights, sounds and yes, smells too! This one was no exception!

After The Muppets we grabbed some food and then got to experience The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights… Just a little sparkly wouldn’t you say?!?

After the lights it was time to do the Star Wars thing again, first up ‘Star Tours’, a ‘thrilling 3D flight simulator’ which was really quite good, then ‘Path of the Jedi’, a short film about the film franchise and a stroll through an exhibition (I must admit by this stage I was a little Star Wars’d out…) So the boys said hey to Chewbacca and we moved on… (yay)…

After that we got a little more traditional and enjoyed ‘Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream’. This was a brilliant walk through multi media exhibit which brought the story of Walt to life and shared the history of Mickey and all the parks… It was really cool and I wished we had longer to explore this part of the park…

Unfortunately we had to get a wiggle on as we were booked in to see the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular…. This was not at all what we were suspecting, it started out like how we imagined with Indy dodging booby traps and near death experiences but when he got run over by a giant ball and someone shouted “cut, light’s” we thought… hmmm…. Turns out it’s a tongue-in-cheek look behind the scenes at how stunts are filmed in the movies with the likes of stunt doubles and such…. lots of explosions and fight scenes and a comedic volunteer from the audience…..

So…. Next up was a chance to celebrate some of Hollywood’s finest other films as we did the ‘Great Movie Ride’ a 20 minute ride through the most famous films ever… from Mary Poppins to the Wizard of Oz, Singing in the Rain to Alien…

We ended our day with a pretzel and some Star Wars fireworks… Hollywood Studios… Done!

An American Tale 9/14

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Be Our Guest, blog, Blogger, Disney, Disney Holiday, engagement, Family Holiday, Holiday Blog, Holiday Blogger, Orlando Holiday

Day 9 and our full day dedicated to the Magic Kingdom had come around…. in the first week we’d only managed to do an evening here or there so we thought it would be fun to spend a whole day in ‘Walt’s world’.

We again chose to approach the Kingdom via boat rather then monorail and it was lovely to see the castle peeking into view in daylight having only ever seen it at night before…

We entered through the main gate and past the Theatre where Maxwell proposed! Cue smiles all round… From there it was on to Adventure Land

The first ride we went on was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride which was a fun water ride through various pirate hang outs… if you were lucky and managed to dodge the living dead you may spot Captain Jack Sparrow here and there along the journey…

After a spot of dressing up and a visit to Torguga Tavern it was time to check out the famous Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse…

This was really cute and you got a chance to climb and explore the various rooms and passages of the tree house… it was really well done and kinda made you wanna live in a tree!!

After that we stopped by the Jungle River Cruise (we didnt actually ride it as queue was about 2hrs long) and it was time to call the future in-laws and share with them the good news of our engagement…

After a few dodgy wifi issues we managed to phone home and share our news…

After that we decided to split up for a bit…. We grabbed a delicious Pineapple float and joined the queue for the awesome Splash Mountain…. (the others went on it later in the day, panic not we didnt leave them out)

After getting a little wet we ventured through Frontier Land and saw a baby Gator on route to our destination….

Pretty cool seeing a wild disney alligator casually swimming round the waters of the lake… We then strolled past the castle on our way to meet the others in Tomorrow World…

It was lovely to see the castle in the sunshine and everyone seemed in such good spirits which was lovely!!

In Tomorrow Land we re-grouped and joined the fast pass queue for the Buzz Lightyear ride (which was fun and I totally whooped Maxwell’s ass shooting way more aliens then he!) ha

After that we split up again as my fiancé and I had dinner plans at Beast’s Castle… We were lucky enough to catch the day time festive parade in front of the castle which was lovely oh so Christmassy! (expect alot of picture’s now… I couldn’t help it)

Pretty special huh!?!?

After that we quickly changed (despite the Americans attitude to dressing down that’s just not how we do things) dressed up we were lead into the beautiful castle with a little help from Lumière and one of the hostesses…. Once inside the masters castle we we sat at a cute little table for two in the grand hall and enjoyed a glass of champagne and 3 courses of yummy French food including a double serving of the grey stuff… it is indeed delicious…

After dinner and a brief glimpse of the beast himself we perused the castle and then got to meet the big man himself… he was quite impressed with Maxwells’ outfit thats for sure…

The rest of our day at Disney was spent taking (lots) more photos and meeting up with the others to do the 7 dwarves and Thunder mountain rides (both of which were excellent) experiencing more Magic kingdom snow, going on Space Mountain and soaking in the atmosphere some more…. Another great day and we all loved our day in the magic kingdom!!!

An American tale 8/14

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blog, Blogger, Downtown Disney, engagement, Epcot, holiday, Holiday Blog, Orlando, Pixar

Day 8 aka Boxing Day….

We woke early, my beautiful new engagement ring nestled safely in its box next to my pillow (it was a little too small) and made plans for the day… After skyping a few family members back home and telling them our exciting news I was eager to get going for the day…

Maxwell and I dropped everyone off at Epcot then headed to a nearby mall to get my ring resized… Our first Mall experience was a hectic one… It seemed our American friends shared the Brit mentality of a Boxing Day shop in the Sales… We battled through the crowds, took some snaps of the decorations on route and then popped in to see a jeweller, because of the style and age of the ring we were advised to leave it for the head jeweller to look at over the next couple of days and were told we would collect it in a day or two.

I sadly handed over my newest my favourite piece of jewellery (a photo to look at in the meantime) and had what felt like our first normal (aka healthy) food of the holiday…

After we were done with lunch we headed off on our day…. We joined the others at Epcot and enjoyed the Pixar Short film festival which saw us watching some of Pixar and Disney’s most successful and popular shorts in 3D….

After that we headed over to Down Town Disney to check out the Marketplace, do some shopping and get some dinner….

The boys excitedly headed straight to the Lego store and spent “a while” perusing the shelves and selecting a gift(s) for themselves… Leaving a little while later checked out some Disney stores before we split up again. Max and I opted for the House of Blues, the rest wanted to check out Planet Hollywood.

We we seated in a booth and serenaded by a fun soulful southern band throughout our meal… I opted for the American classic of buttermilk fried chicken, mash and coleslaw and it was HUGE!!! I boxed up 2 massive bits to take home but what I did eat was enjoyed muchly….

Then it was home and time to share our news with a couple more family members!

 

An American Tale 7/14

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blog, Blogger, Christmas at Disney, christmas day, Disney, Fireworks, holiday, Holiday Blog, Holiday Blogger, Lifestyle blog, Orlando

One week into our holiday marks my favourite day of the year; Christmas Day!

Despite the very different location and circumstances our Christmas Day began like all the others; opening a couple of special presents in bed with my lover… Every Year I get Maxwell a decoration to mark our Christmasses together, this year I had reworked a vintage Mickey and Minnie Box lid into a decoration. He also got a H.P. Chocolate frog because well it’s Christmas and why the hell not…

When we made it out to join the others the tree was surrounded by everyones efforts in the Christmas Eve Walmart trolley dash gift challenge. It seems you could actually get quite a bit with the allocated £10/$15 per person….

We popped some prosecco and had a festive cheers before Skype-ing various family members back home.

Eggs for brekkie by the pool, then a quick swim and it was time for some presents….

After a few pressies we began making our Christmas Lunch, dining with 2 vegetarians and 2 vegans was a new one for me but I ended up making a pie with layers of spinach, onion, roasted butternut squash, facon (fake bacon for those not in the know, ps, the Americans do it better then Quorn), leeks and cornbread stuffing… it was rather delicious! We served it with good old roasted spuds and carrots and broccoli, green beans and cabbage. A coffee pot of gravy (couldn’t find a jug) and a yorkshire pudding/pancake completed our festive feast. Pudding was of course the ever-so festive and traditional box of krispy Kreme donuts!

After lunch we battled with some Disney-esq micro blocks and finished the presents.

We then headed to the Magic Kingdom to finish our Christmas Day in the most magical way possible…

The Park was very busy but everyone was in good spirits and the decorations that adorned the front of all the buildings lining Main Street added to the festivities.

We watched the transformation of the Castle to icicles thanks to Elsa then the Christmas Day fireworks over the Castle… It was all pretty impressive, from projections onto the building to transforming it into a giant Christmas Tree… there’s was lots of oooh’s and ahhh’s that’s for sure…. And then it snowed!!! Fake snow, but still snow!!! exciting!!!!!

After the fireworks our little group split up and went off to tick things off our individual list of to-do’s… Maxwell and I caught the old railway round the park, watched a Festive show, rode the Carousel, strolled through the castle, then decided to queued up to meet Mickey…

We queued for ages as finally made it to the front of the queue about 11.45pm… into a little room we went and did some silly poses with Mickey, then, well then Maxwell proposed to me!!!! Yep…. in the last few minutes of Christmas Day the man I loved asked me to marry him! Of course I said yes, there was lots of tears and my favourite ever Christmas Day ended with happy tear stained cheeks and a new fiancé.

As left left the park, shaky hands and a shiny new ring in tow we noted a huge halo ring around the moon, a sign we took of good things to come and the most exciting of rings (ps I’ll do a proper engagement post later once it’s all sunk in and I can think of it without getting all teary! ha)

An American Tale 6/14

Tags

blog, Blogger, Christmas Eve, Christmas in Orlando, Family Holiday, holiday, Holiday Blog

Our 6th day of holiday was Christmas Eve so we began our day with a slight lie in and a trip to the main pool (ours wasn’t warm enough by this point) A swim, a cocktail and a bit of time with my book was a lovely way to begin Christmas Eve. After an hour or so we returned home, got ready, grabbed some lunch then we headed to Walmart to have a little Christmas Eve fun…

We decided to do a challenge, $15 per person, 1 hour and no conversing…. We had to see how inventive and clever we could be getting pressies for everyone… It was really fun, when ever we saw a member of our party we had to turn around and go the other way, it was all very silly and quite amusing dodging all the proper stressy christmas eve shoppers…

Once we were done, we secretly bundled our bags back into the car, returned home and hide them away from prying eyes.

After that we decided to return to Universal and complete ‘Islands of Adventure’…. We started out in the Marvel Super Hero Island and did the ‘Amazing Adventures of Spiderman’ ride, a 3D part simulator part rollercoaster ride which made you feel like you were being swung through the streets of downtown New York! 
After a few shop stops we moved onto Toon Lagoon and the fun really began…. The first ride we tried in this section was Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges…. I have never laughed so much or got quite so wet fully clothed…. It was a rapid kind of ride which saw us all in a huge circular raft twisting and turning our way around the unruly waters…. Huge waves washed in through the sides of the raft and as we dipped and dived under and through various water falls and jets we left chuckling like a bunch of naughty school kids!! haha… since we were already soaked we thought we might as well do the Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls log flume too…. this only added to the parts of us that miraculously remained dry….

We then dried up a little and moved on to Jurassic Park… We enjoyed the Jurassic Park River Adventure and checked out the Discovery centre

After that, because the park was so empty we snuck back into Hogwarts Castle and did the Harry Potter ride again… We then meandered our way back via The Lost Continent and Seuss Landing…

So there you go, a most unusual Christmas Eve but an utterly fun one non-the-less. We returned home at gone midnight and then all disappeared off to wrap our mystery gifts and place them under the miniature tree we brought at the beginning of the holiday ready for Christmas Day tomorrow!