So the day finally arrived! Cases were packed and loaded by 5am (since realising just how much luggage we all need on our first Disney trip Mr P’s cars have gotten progressively bigger! In fairness, we only ever bring 3 cases and this year one is almost full with Polly’s birthday presents, but I’m still glad we weren’t going in my Mini!) The storm last night didn’t help our ‘good night’s sleep before Disney’ campaign but never mind, WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY!!!
For those who don’t know already, our party consists of myself (Mel, or Mummy as I’m more frequently known! Does anyone else find themselves referring to each other as Mummy and Daddy even when they don’t have the children with them? Please say it isn’t just us!!), Steve (Daddy), Polly (turning 8 whilst we are away) and Winnie (turning 6.5 whilst we are away…the struggle of one school holiday baby and one non-school holiday baby is real!) I will likely post blogs that are lacking in useful information (don’t expect good pictures as I’ve always already eaten before I think about photos, and empty plate pictures aren’t the most interesting!) but hopefully are of some interest to at least some of you!
We will be staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge with the free dining plan for 18 nights and then moving to The Grand Floridian for the last 3 nights. We were originally booked in at The Yacht Club (my favourite!) for 14 nights, but the girls absolutely love AKL and begged to go back. When we saw that the price difference meant we could stay an extra 4 nights for the same price we decided to go for it. We always book the accommodation as soon as Disney releases the free dining offer to maximise the perks (free gift card etc) but then always end up changing the booking once flight prices are released. This time we found a great deal on a flight (considering its school holidays) but it was flying back 3 days later than our dates, so we initially decided to add another 3 nights on to our AKL stay. However, I like a change, and the thought of 21 nights in the same room as a snoring warthog, scuttling rat and squeaking mouse wouldn’t be my first choice. After looking on the Disney website I decided to take a look at Trivago to see if there were any offers on anywhere. We found that Ebookers had a sale on, along with 12% cashback if booking through Quidco so ended up choosing Grand Floridian Club Level (get us!! Acting all posh!!) for less per night than AKL would have cost. We won’t have the dining plan but our AKL credits will stretch to cover our first day there, and we leave early on the last day so only have to find food for 2 days and I’m hoping the Club Level offerings cover at least breakfast. I’ll keep you posted as that level is very new to us.
We arrived at the airport just short of 3.5 hours before departure. We parked in the Meet & Greet (if you prebook you can usually find a discount and/ or cashback) and were through check in quick enough. We then realised we’d left the ham sandwiches we’d bought for the girls in the car. After debating how rancid 3 week old ham might smell after being left in an unventilated car in a heatwave, Steve decided to go and get them. This added a bit of time on, but it was all smooth enough and we were soon eating bacon cobs before heading to the gate.
The flight was good. The girls have travelled a lot and are never any trouble but I still take enough to keep them occupied for around 6 months (the case in the photo is literally full of sticker books/colouring books/ sketch pads etc!) As they were awake so much in the night and then up to travel to the airport so early, both girls slept a bit which is most unusual for them (we got lucky and had 3 empty seats next to us so they got to lie down) and Steve slept a lot (although he claims he was just resting his eyes!!).
The cabin crew were lovely and set up a drawing/ colouring competition for the children in which Winnie won one of 3 prizes with her Happily Ever After firework picture (Polly didn’t enter as sh said she’d rather sleep!)
We made great time but had to circle in the air for 30 minutes due to stormy weather, which meant we landed at the same time as a number of other planes. However, we were still through immigration and on the Magical Express in. around an hour. I do love the Magical Express option, but both times we have used it we have had to sit waiting for the bus to fill up for around 20-30 minutes and we’ve always been the last hotel to be dropped off at, so all in all it has taken us around 1.5 hours to get from the airport entrance to the hotel. If we were in a rush I think I’d be tempted to get an Uber or Lyft instead.
We had fast passes for Animal Kingdom this evening, including Flight of Passage, but I always knew it was a bit ambitious with the world’s most sleep-needy girls who’d been up since 5am UK time. It turns out that no-one felt up to it after checking in a heading to the room (we had paid for a standard room but I faxed a partial Savannah view request across and we have an amazing view) so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the onsite quick service restaurant, The Mara, before heading back to the room to unpack/ iron the girls’ 400000 outfits (along with a bit of animal spotting from the balcony). Hopefully someone’s day was made by snaffling the fast-passes after I released them.
Everyone is now sound asleep and I’m hoping I won’t be far behind them as if these eye bags of mine get any bigger I’ll be paying an excess baggage charge on them. Early start for Be Our Guest pre-park opening breakfast and Magic Kingdom morning tomorrow.
I’ll try to blog daily as well as sharing photos/ stories on the girls’ Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/doodleandpegdodisney/
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on the other side! Mickey, we’re coming to get ya’!
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 