The epic Disney rundown

First things first though… Have made it to Seattle with yet more fun of sorts. After an early start, made it to Orlando airport and got on our flight all okay. Flight took off on time and landed in Chicago a bit before schedule. Which seemed great seeing we only had a 40 min connection window. Until the plane had to be gated… Storm had just been through and all the ramps/gates had been closed so we had to sit and wait for ages in the queue as time ticked away. Checked madly on mobiles to see what the status of the next flight was (hoping it was delayed) and it said it had moved 15 mins. But getting of the plane took time. Fly domestically in the US and you’ll soon find out why – carry ons are huge!

Finally got off at 9:51am which was the time of the next flight. Airport was still showing a 9:51am departure so a mad dash was made for the next gate in diminishing hope. Bear in mind Chicago is the 3rd busiest airport in the world based on passenger traffic, and to add to that our gate wasn’t even in the same concourse! So ensured crazy 2 mins of running with a backpack, muppet and drink bottle in tow with me coughing and wheezing along the way. And made it just in time! Funnily enough after checking email in Seattle, United themselves had already assumed a missed connection at 9:45am and autobooked for the next flight.

Now for the Disney rundown – apologies for the super long blog but I know some people might be interested in the adventures (hi mum!). So did the Disney World thing as a vacation package – staying at a Disney resort, 5 day park hopper and the Disney dining plan for the duration of the stay. A great experience and would recommend it anyone. It’s not really what I’d call cheap but if you can make use of one of their special offers it does help (e.g. we had an offer than gave the dining plan for free). What was awesome, was we didn’t have to worry about anything apart from what theme park to go to. It felt like a vacation!

Had to do some planning about which theme parks to hit on which days though, as Columbus weekend was happening when we were there which means massive crowds. Seemed to work out all good though as don’t think I queued any longer than 30min for a ride over the 5 days. In fact most times I only queued 5 – 15 mins!

I’ll leave the rest of the rundown to the pics…Have organised by park, resort etc for ease

Magic Kingdom

Welcome to the Magic Kingdom

Always a fave, Splash Mountain

End of Splash Mountain ride

Cinderella Castle

Goofy

If you keep you’re eyes peeled you can spot ‘hidden mickeys’ like these

Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade

Electrical Parade – this wasn’t that great…

Wishes Nighttime Spectacular

Animal Kingdom

Slightly lopsided photo of the entry

On the ride Kilimanjaro Safaris passengers ride in an open air vehicle through the Africa part of Animal Kingdom hopefully spotting animals such as this giraffe

Or an 8 week baby elephant! Heaps of other animals too, but bit hard to photo take from a moving vehicle…

Bad photo of me, but hey I was trying to co-pose with the dude from A Bug’s Life

Expedition Everest, a really good coaster even if bits of it did make me feel a bit sick

The ‘Tree of Life’, yes placed in the middle of the park

Epcot

Wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy Epcot, but I’m suprised to admit it probably was my 2nd fave park.

Food and Wine festival was on… maybe why I liked the park more than I expected?

And Tigger was bouncing the whole time…

The next 4 photos documents what begins the excessive amount of food… this constitutes a table service dinner for two… not to mention the soft drink and coffee!

Character photos at 11:30 at night are fun…

Epcot IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth show

Following lot of pics are from Food and Wine Festival and again highlight the absurdity of the dining plan as all of these bar the drink count as a ‘snack credit’