Our Spectacular FIRST Disney Vacation! August 2011 UK TR- OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY Mini TR

[meggiebeth]

What a GREAT experience!! I'm glad you bought that photo package and shared...it was worth it. Tell Rory he's a great photographer. What a fun day...wonder where you went for dinner?!

It was worth it to us too. Lovely photos of the swim! Rory is very pleased and he says thankyou. Lol. Well we went somewhere really... lame for dinner lol. We eat there sometimes in the UK. Chicken nuggets and chips is not the most... inspiring meal we have had on the trip.

Hello! Thanks for joining in! You are going to LOVE SSR! It is the most wonderful resort! Are you on the dining plan at all? You are going to love WDW... it's just amazing! Although the heat in August does get a little unbearable midday. One thing you must try is the main pool at SSR at night. After it's gotten dark it's heavenly... and the atmosphere is lovely too.

Thank you! If you're used to France (depending on what your accommodation was- we used to stay in 3 bedroom mobile homes) Florida and SSR will be a real treat. The whole resort feels so upscale and friendly. And if you get a villa in the Springs you will be close to most things.

Your daughters are the perfect age to enjoy it. If your 12 year old DD is anything like me she will love it! I sometimes wished I had a younger sister, like your DD6, to show the princesses to and things lol

Have you been to the US before? If not it will be even more amazing! All the different words they use, and all the patriotic flags, etc. And when you eat in a restaurant... they top up your glass again and again for free! Okay... that's not big but it was neat to us! The service is incomparable to most places in the UK.

Thanks! I will get Rory to write some more soon... I'm sure a bar of chocolate will persuade him

Hi Meggie

More fabulous pictures. We're not doing DC - not enough money or time!

We have been to New York nefore, but nowhere else in the States. And yes, we've got the dining plan and ADRs all done. We've gone for lots of 2TS places (Le Cellier, Brown Derby, Spirit of Aloha, Fultons, Wolfgang, CRT) as I couldn't figure out how we'd have time for more, as we're spending quite a few days offsite at Universal, Seaworld and KSC.

Looking forward to more updates from you and your family!

Thanks! DC is great for everyone to do once but it is really bad value for money IMO.

Wow! What'd you think of New York? My cousin went there on her honeymoon and said she was disappointed. You'll have to tell me how you got on with Spirit of Aloha, Le Cellier and CRT. We were considering them for our last trip but chose different ones.

I also hope to hear how you liked Universal and KSC. We have not done them yet but REALLY want to. It sounds like you are doing lots of things! Are you going for two weeks? You will be soooo busy doing WDW, Universal and Seaworld, but busy is great for Orlando!

Thanks! Hope to update soon. Waiting for photos to upload on Photobucket. Thanks for reading!

 

[meggiebeth]

Welcome back! Before I go on further, let me mention that soon I will have an update up explaining what each member of our family thought of Discovery Cove and ratings on the experience and value.

After we left Discovery Cove, we drove down to... Mcdonalds! Original right?! We have Mcdonalds in the UK too, and eat there quite a lot... whenever we travel to be honest. I think I was determined to eat NO Mcdonalds in the US, but there we go, lol

Rory was happy in the car with his (unDisney ) friend, Luigi, who I'm sure you have heard of...

We drove on...

Until we arrived and got out the car. William and Rorsie posed for the camera...

We certainly don't get these in our Mcdonalds back at home!

The food was Mcdonald-y and I have to say, me and my parents vastly preferred the food at Disney to here!

We went back to Reunion afterwards to rest and get ready for the next Disney Day!

The night before, while eating at 'Ohana, we popped into the convenience store there and used up our remaining snack credits.

So tonight, I decided to take photos to commemorate the occasion...

We ended up getting 22 'snacks' ( ) most of which I believe we took home and used as presents for our friends. Rory gave some of the chocolate bars to his teachers along with the biscuit Mickey and Minnie.

That's it for now! Coming up, our next Disney day, starting with a fun filled morning at Downtown Disney! Bye!

 

[giantstoindy]

Fast food is always nice on vacation! Those snacks look really good! My relatives are chocoholics so I have to find the Por Favor box! We'll have to chat on facebook to share food ideas!!

 

[Tinkerbell1989]

Hi

Just thought I'd pop in and let you know what a fab job you're doing with your TR! You guys all looked like you had a great time!

SSR looks beautiful, as does the villa (I've only stayed at villas, but am staying at Coronado Springs in October!)... and I loooooved looking at your DC photos! It brought back some amazing memories from my December trip (see my signature for my TR!)

Can't wait to hear about your second week!

Steffi xx

 

[meggiebeth]

Welcome back! I'm so sorry I haven't posted in ages! I've just had lots of mock examinations, but thankfully, all that is passed, and I can get back to my trip report!

The next day, we decided to visit Downtown Disney properly. We had seen some of it from when we went to Planet Hollywood, but hadn't really looked around. Finally I got to see all the wonderful lego sculptures in person! Some were really impressive.

I decided to go into the World of Disney store. I knew it was pretty big, but I wasn't expecting it to be as huge as it was! I was in heaven! Because I was the only person in my family who took a considerable amount of money with me to spend, everyone else was getting rather bored waiting for me to choose what to buy. And of course I had to browse EVERY corner of the shop! I couldn't miss anything.

Thankfully, (!) a thunderstorm came about and we COULDN'T leave, or we would get absolutely soaked! So we HAD to stay in the World of Disney store, much to my satisfaction!

I took ages trying to choose a photo frame. I liked the blue coloured one but it had A Whole New World lyrics printed on it. I was wondering whether to get another coloured one with lyrics that I liked more, like a song from Cinderella. Too bad, I just went with the blue one because I liked it so much.

I wanted to get another frame with figures of all the princesses on. But my mum said 'No, it's a bit tacky, and it's for little girls' so I gave in. I saw a beautiful photo album that looked like leather and had a beautiful gold centre. I had to get it! But to this day, I still haven't put photos in it. I'm bankrupt. Haha!

I also bought some souviners for friends, a set of the Disney Princesses (they all had sparkles on them!) and who knows what else- I can't really remember. I guess I never got to buy things like this when I was younger so now will make up for it!

Rory tried on some special edition ears:

The rain stopped, and my family were tired of standing around watching Disney cartoons. Okay, I love Disney more than any of my family, but they could've looked round and bought things!

So we said goodbye to the World of Disney...

We had a look round and admired some more lego figures:

Dunno what this is:

I really like this photo (and I took it!)

We then walked around some more and admired the pretty rivers and buildings.

I sniffed as we walked past our 'home'

I just couldn't help missing good old SSR!

And then we ventured to the T-Rex restaurant- just to have a look around...

That's it for now! Thanks for reading!

Next up: More on our trip to DTD, our look around T-Rex and the Harley Davidson shop, with lots of photos! Be sure to tune in!

 

[meggiebeth]

Fast food is always nice on vacation! Those snacks look really good! My relatives are chocoholics so I have to find the Por Favor box! We'll have to chat on facebook to share food ideas!!

It's always nice, but I do prefer table service! We eat enough fast food at home Oh yeah, that's a great idea! We bought our Por Favor box at some shop in the Poly. Yeah I would love to chat on facebook to share food ideas! It's great to know another vegetarian!

Hi

Just thought I'd pop in and let you know what a fab job you're doing with your TR! You guys all looked like you had a great time!

SSR looks beautiful, as does the villa (I've only stayed at villas, but am staying at Coronado Springs in October!)... and I loooooved looking at your DC photos! It brought back some amazing memories from my December trip (see my signature for my TR!)

Can't wait to hear about your second week!

Steffi xx

Hello! Thank you so much! We certainly had a wonderful time!

Oh, have you stayed at SSR then? I would love to try some other DVC properties, but they are so expensive I don't think we can. I hope you like Coronado Springs! We are considering it for our trip in 2013 so can't wait to hear what you thought about it!

Thanks! I'll definately come and check out your TR. I love looking at other people's Florida TRs!

Thanks! Sorry it took me so long to update. Been soooo busy!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[giantstoindy]

Downtown Disney is so fun, isn't it?! The World of Disney has to be my favorite store ever!! I'll have to get that photo frame. about the thunderstorms keeping you shopping!!

 

[Mkbnoc]

Thank you for the update on the trip. Love all the pictures. Looks like it was a great trip.

 

[meggiebeth]

Downtown Disney is so fun, isn't it?! The World of Disney has to be my favorite store ever!! I'll have to get that photo frame. about the thunderstorms keeping you shopping!!

I love Downtown Disney! So many shops and so much Disney! Me too- the World of Disney is amazing- and a great place to have a shopping spree! I love Floridian thunderstorms! And how convenient we got stuck in the World of Disney and not the Lego shop!

Thank you for the update on the trip. Love all the pictures. Looks like it was a great trip.

Thanks for joining in! It was a great trip, and we cannot wait to go back! Thanks for reading!

 

[meggiebeth]

Welcome back! We had a peek in T-Rex restaurant for a while. We actually visited the Rainforest Cafe in London a few weeks ago and it really reminded us of T-Rex for some reason!

We walked past Planet Hollywood- where we had eaten earlier in the trip:

We popped into the Harley Davidson shop. My dad and brothers were certainly in awe here. Some photos:

Then- off we trotted to go and do something very important! (To me... )

Some scenery on the way:

Now- that's it for now! Can you guess where we were going next? Here's a little clue...

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned!

 

[giantstoindy]

Loved the update! I'm glad you took some pictures of the Harley shop and the Characters in Flight Balloon! Hmm..honestly can't think of where you went next??!

 

[meggiebeth]

Hello there- so sorry I haven't updated in ages- I've been so busy recently. I have just had two maths exams and a music theory exam- and on Wednesday I have a history exam on the American West and then a French speaking assessment on Thursday- so wish me luck!

We went to London this weekend to the Imperial War Museum and later the Hard Rock Cafe- which reminded me of Florida for sure! So I thought I'd talk about that for this update.

The Imperial War Museum is a large, impressive museum in central London with some very interesting exhibits. It's also free! We had a look round the main hall which had some very interesting looking tanks and weapons.

There was an old plane you could actually walk through- which Rory took a liking to!

Rory took some photos:

My mum, William and myself went into the Holocaust exhibit which was really good- but very shocking too. Rory was advised not to go in, but he'd have been fine we think. So my dad and Rory had to occupy themselves by exploring other parts of the museum.

I guess they got bored

We then went to the cafe to have a drink. We just got a new camera (and lovin' it!) so we experimented with it on my dad...

We then decided to leave... but we were still hungry.

Sooooooo..... where did we go?!

HARD ROCK CAFE!!! It's in Park Lane (I think) which is actually one of the most expensive places in London. On our version of Monopoly, the two blue expensive ones are Park Lane and Mayfair.

Hope to update soon this time! So coming up, our walk over to the Hard Rock Cafe- where we saw some pretty cool stuff!

 

[meggiebeth]

Loved the update! I'm glad you took some pictures of the Harley shop and the Characters in Flight Balloon! Hmm..honestly can't think of where you went next??!

Thanks! Haha, I guess the DVC bag was a give-away. Happy Birthday by the way! Did you have a good day? It sounds like it!

 

[saintstickets]

Hope to update soon this time! So coming up, our walk over to the Hard Rock Cafe- where we saw some pretty cool stuff!

Glad you updated to let us know how you are doing. Good luck on the exams. BTW, we just got back from Discovery Cove (TR link below) and it was everything you said it was!! We loved it!!! Looking forward to your next update.

 

[giantstoindy]

You all look so different and the museum looks beautiful! Seriously, I want to go!! Cafes like that are my favorite, too.

Well off to finish getting ready for the trip tomorrow. Leaving for the airport at 5 a.m. and staying in MIA tomorrow-early Saturday morning. Go Miami Heat! Then we'll be in Disney THIS SATURDAY for lunch! Woot woot! Anyhow, I'm sure you'll see plenty of my updates on facebook.

Good luck with your exams and I can't wait to read more when I get back!! Umm...Bonne chance avec vos examens et je ne peux pas attendre pour en savoir plus quand je reviens! Just kidding, I used google translate for that!

 

[meggiebeth]

Glad you updated to let us know how you are doing. Good luck on the exams. BTW, we just got back from Discovery Cove (TR link below) and it was everything you said it was!! We loved it!!! Looking forward to your next update.

Thank you! They went quite well, especially French! I'm so glad you loved DC! I think it's hard not to- can't wait to check your TR out and see what your day was like!

You all look so different and the museum looks beautiful! Seriously, I want to go!! Cafes like that are my favorite, too.

Well off to finish getting ready for the trip tomorrow. Leaving for the airport at 5 a.m. and staying in MIA tomorrow-early Saturday morning. Go Miami Heat! Then we'll be in Disney THIS SATURDAY for lunch! Woot woot! Anyhow, I'm sure you'll see plenty of my updates on facebook.

Good luck with your exams and I can't wait to read more when I get back!! Umm...Bonne chance avec vos examens et je ne peux pas attendre pour en savoir plus quand je reviens! Just kidding, I used google translate for that!

Haha! I hope that's a good thing! We have the wonders of hair straightening and makeup back at home which we couldn't use much in humid Florida! You should so go if you can! The Imperial War Museum is so interesting but there are loads of fantastic museums in London- and cute little boutique cafes too! Planned much for your trip to Ireland yet?

Wow! How's your trip been so far? Are you still at Disney or are you back home yet? Your trip looks heavenly- all the photographs you've posted on Facebook are wonderful and make me want to get back to the US ASAP!

Merci beaucoup! C'etait assez facile! Do you learn French at all then- or any languages? My French exams were quite easy- but the others I just hope I did OK.

 

[meggiebeth]

Sorry that it's been so long since I have updated- I've been so busy with preparations of my village's carnival and Olympic Torch Relay. I thought I would share some photos.

My dad was running the 'human fruit machine' stall and we painted a big old fashioned hat for his head to play the part, with patriotic colour.

I painted two signs, here is one of them

There were loads of police cars and motorbikes. The roads were all closed and the first veichles came!

The sponsors of the olympics all had random lorries too. Coca Cola were giving out free bottles of coke!

Then there was Samsung...

And then came more coaches and police veichles, and after that... the OLYMPIC TORCH!!!

Darn,,, my computer is freezing and it is time for bed! I will post pictures hopefully tomorrow of the torch. It was certainly a memorable occasion.

Megan x

 

[abish19]

I have so enjoyed reading your trip report, and getting to know you and your family better.

Looking forward to another update soon!

 

[Rosey203]

Wow! You planned the perfect trip!!