Disney Time Again!

After many years away from Walt Disney World we've just returned from the most amazing time away fully immersed inside the Disney bubble.

So let me fill you in.

Back in 2020 things started to align that meant a visit to Walt Disney World was on the cards...but then we all know what happened that year! Our plans and dreams were once again put on an indefinite hold while we waited for the world to get back to some semblance of normal. Fast forward to September of 2023 when in an attempt to get a little Disney fix we embarked on our first Disney cruise (and first cruise ever!) aboard the Disney Dream. Not only did this give us that Disney magic we'd been looking for but it also gave us a whole new way of 'doing' Disney, which we fell in love with! So much so that we made new friends while aboard and were booked for the following year (dragging the kids with us!) almost as soon as our feet touched land!

So after our second cruise in September of 2024, and with Simon joining me in retirement nine months earlier, our thoughts turned once more towards Walt Disney World. When our new friends from our cruise in 2023 mentioned that they too were hoping to visit WDW in early 2025 we vowed to meet up and set about coordinating diaries. As soon as dates were confirmed we were able to sort flights, hotels, tickets and more.

Our itinerary ultimately involved a couple of nights staying at Disney's Coronado Springs resort, followed by a 3 night Disney cruise aboard the Disney Wish, returning to Walt Disney World for a 19 night stay at Disney's Port Orleans French Quarter resort, with a 14 day park ticket to experience all that the parks had to offer!

Suffice to say we had the best time and have lots to tell...so stay tuned as I try over the course of the next few posts to recount our travels.

Disney Inked

One of the ways that I keep my love of Disney going, as well as expressing how much Disney means to me, is through my tattoos.

Every tattoo that I have has a bit of Disney thrown in somewhere...some more obvious than others!

It all started a fair few years ago when Simon & I became intrigued with the world of tattoos after watching a number of 'ink' related TV programs. We loved the artistry involved and the stories behind the tattoos and soon we were talking about getting our own and what we would have done and why.

My reasoning was very simple - it had to combine the loves in life (family and Disney) as well as be designed by Simon.  The thought of having a piece of his art on my body was a no-brainer as far as I was concerned.

So the first tattoo I ever had was at the base of my spine. It spans across my lower back with a tri-circle Mickey at the centre; this was designed by Simon, and tattooed by Gray Silva at Rampant Ink Tattoo Studio. It also incorporates Simon’s initials and those of our two children (if you know where to look!)

Photo taken at Disney's Animal Kingdom, Dinoland USA after riding Primeval Whirl, 2008

My next tattoo carried on the Disney theme and once again incorporated the classic tri-circle Mickey at it's centre.  This was designed by Simon along with input from tattooist, Rachel Huntington who also worked at Rampant Ink Tattoo Studio.

Photo taken at Disneyland, Sleeping Beauty's Castle, 2010

My third tattoo is around my ankle and foot and has flowers with tri-circle Mickeys at their centres flowing off an abstract tri-circle Mickey.  This time I took Rachel some designs of tri-circle Mickey’s that I had come across on our previous visit to Disneyland, explained where I wanted the tattoo and that I wanted cherry blossom type flowers as well.  I told her all about ‘hidden Mickey’s’ and love the fact that she was able to get so many into one tattoo; between the main ‘Mickey’, the flower centres and tiny hidden ‘dots’ there are 11 hidden Mickey’s!  I also love the fact that those in the know see the 'Disney' element straight away but for others I have to point it out, and when they realise they are completely awestruck!

Photo taken at the Magic Kingdom, Main Street USA, 2011

My next tattoo was based on a drawing that Simon completed as part of his 365 Mickeys Project; the drawing celebrated the day I got my original foot/ankle tattoo!

Simon's 365 Mickeys Project drawing for 8th July 2011

The tattoo version is almost the same but with an extra flower and a total of seven hidden Mickeys. This tattoo has since had a small star added to represent my mum who recently passed away.

Freshly inked Tattoo by Rachel Huntington - May 2014

So what to do next....well it's true what they say that you can never stop at just one tattoo and the idea that started bubbling away in my head was that of a full sleeve...a full Disney sleeve of course.

So in February this year the first part of my sleeve was begun. Now this sleeve is still a 'work-in-progress' and will contain a mixture of images of all different kinds that help to signify what Disney is all about for me personally; favourite movies, characters as well as representing my Disney home - Walt Disney World. The tattoo was started initially by Rachel while she was working at Rampant Ink. We started with Cinderella's castle (to represent the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World) and then the rose and bell jar from Beauty & The Beast as well as Scrump from Lilo & Stitch...

...next came some words, colour and a classic Disney blue bird...

...this was followed by more words, tinkerbell and some fairy dust...

 ...oh and the genie's lamp from Aladdin.

Now this is where I had a change of artists as Rachel decided to take a break from tattooing. Luckily for me Rampant Ink also employs the amazingly talented Simon 'Saint' Heywood who agreed to take on the rest of my sleeve for me. My first 6 hour session with Simon included lanterns from Tangled...

 ...colour and enhancements to the rose and bell jar as well as filling in around some of the words...

 ....there was also the apple from Snow White along with Cinderella's glass slipper...

...and then moving onto my lower arm...

 ...a movie clapper board to represent Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World.

I have now had my second 6 hour session with Simon which has resulted in seven new pieces to my sleeve. So continuing on my lower arm...

...on the front I have Figment, the purple dinosaur from the attraction Journey Into Imagination which represents Epcot. I then have the Simba cave drawing from the movie The Lion King which represents the Animal Kingdom. So that's all four main parks at Walt Disney World represented!

On the back of my lower arm there is...

 ...Mrs Potts, from Beauty & The Beast, and of course that means that...

...Chip had to be included too! Also on my lower arm there is...

...a classic Disney butterfly as seen in the likes of Bambi. Moving back onto my upper arm there were a couple of smaller pieces added...

...a silhouette of Mary Poppins and a couple of 'Mickey' balloons which are synonymous with any visit to the Magic Kingdom!

But I still have plenty of space left to fill and plenty of ideas of what I'd like to fill those spaces with...but I won't spoil the surprise and will leave the reveal to another post after my next inking session later this year!

WDW Summer 2013 - Day 12

I thought it was about time I got back on the case with writing up our last vacation to WDW, can't believe it's a year since we were last there! But at least writing this blog helps to re-live the memories and keep me going until we can next visit (I have no idea when this will be yet!!!)

So here we are at Day 12...so what did we do?  Well the mad one in our family, my husband Simon, decided to get up and out early and go for another run between the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness Campground; not a long run by his standards but enough to keep him in training as he had a half marathon to run only a couple of weeks after we returned home. But after that the day started with breakfast in the sunshine; what better way to start the day?!

Mmmm pancakes!!!

We then headed over to Animal Kingdom to catch up on a few things we hadn't had chance to do yet.  Our first stop was to take the Wildlife Express Train over to Rafiki's Planet Watch and visit Conservation Station.

This was an area of the park that we had never visited before and is an area that you can choose to spend as little or as much time there as you like.  It gives you a greater appreciation of all the work being carried out on a daily basis to look after and nurture all the animals within the Animal Kingdom.  It is also a less crowded area of the park and along with the train ride is a nice diversion from all the hustle and bustle elsewhere.

So after finding out about the behind the scenes at the Animal Kingdom we thought we would jump aboard Kilimanjaro Safaris.  This was the first time we had rode this attraction since the storyline of 'poachers on the reserve' had been dropped...and I have to say I enjoyed it so much more!  The guide we had was great and it really felt more like a trip around the outback somewhere with the pace of the journey much more dictated by the animals that we could see.  We all really enjoyed our trip and managed to see a good array of animals, with some good close-up experiences of rhinos, ostrich, elephants and some baby giraffes.

On safari!

By now the kids were itching for some thrills so off they went to get soaking wet on Kali River Rapids whilst Simon and I decided to just have a wander and soak up the atmosphere, which at Animal Kingdom is truly exceptional.  It also gave us chance to take advantage of our Photopass+...

Ahhh!!!

The kids were into full thrill mode now and headed off to Expedition Everest...

Trust me the kids are on both these photos!!
















But whilst we waited for them we took a walk over into Dinoland USA and had a little perusal of the shopping opportunities.  I finally picked out a new phone case (I'd been looking at them every time we went into a shop and been struggling to make a decision!) and when Simon returned from paying for it he'd bought me a couple of Cutester Vinylmations as a surprise - ah!!

By now it was time for lunch and we headed over to Pizzafari in the Discovery Island section of the park.  It was our first time eating here (our usual 'go to' tends to be Flametree Barbecue) and actually we were quite impressed.  We had a mix of salads and pizza and chocolate mousse and cheesecake and we all really enjoyed what we had. The restaurant wasn't overly busy so we were able to grab a table in a relatively quiet corner and really enjoy our time there; we loved the bright and bold decorations throughout; in fact the room we were in seemed to have a theme of animals that hang upside down with painted murals of sloths, bats and monkeys - absolutely fantastic.

After lunch we headed back to the Wilderness Lodge and while the kids chilled out at the hotel Simon and I decided to go exploring and walked part of the route Simon had gone running along between the Lodge and the Fort Wilderness Campground.

Views walking from Wilderness Lodge to Fort Wilderness Campground

We had a lovely wander around Fort Wilderness taking in the dock area, Tri-Circle D Farm and the Meadow Trading Post shop.

Some of the wildlife we encountered

View from the dock at Fort Wilderness Campground, looking towards the old Discovery Island

And look what we saw on our walk back to the Wilderness Lodge...

...and then we arrived home...

...just before the rain came!!

So we decided to wait out the rain before taking a boat to the Magic Kingdom; we had a bit of a wait for a boat (which was very unusual) so ended up jumping aboard one headed for Fort Wilderness Campground that then went over to the Magic Kingdom but it was great just to take the time and get chance to show the kids where the campground was and to point out the old Discovery Island!

Beautiful view as we travelled over to the Magic Kingdom

Over at Magic Kingdom we headed for New Fantasyland...

and in particular Gastons Tavern to partake in a pork shank...

...now I do have photos of me eating said pork shank but none were flattering enough to put on here!  And the verdict...yes it was nice, but it was basically a messy way to eat roast pork and is just the pork version of the turkey leg!  Personally I've tried it but won't be bothering again!

As we'd shared one pork shank between us we headed over to Pecos Bills for more substantial food before jumping onto Big Thunder Mountain which by this time was 'in the dark'! The kids then managed two rides on Splash Mountain back-to-back as there was no wait at all and we then all went back on Big Thunder Mountain to ride it during Wishes, which was amazing...so much so we rode it again!

Roller Coaster buddies :)

As we made our way round from Frontierland we managed to catch the second showing of 'Celebrate the Magic' from the bridge leaving Liberty Square.  Turned out to be a nice view and we caught details that we'd missed on our previous viewing.  As the park was busy we thought we'd take our time and exit through the shops but they were just too busy to be able to meander through so we decided to make a break for the exit.  The queues for buses and the monorail were heaving but we walked right up to the dock for Wilderness Lodge, got straight on a boat and were heading off before we knew it!

WDW Summer 2013 - Day 10

Well it's been longer than I thought since I last posted so I thought I'd better get my writing head on and let you know what we got up to on Day 10 of our last vacation to WDW last Summer.

Well the day started a little later than I think we'd intended; we all slept really well!  So first order of the day was breakfast in the sunshine at Wilderness Lodge...by now we were getting rather used to this start to the day and loving it everyday :)

When we finally got ourselves out and about it was over to the Animal Kingdom and a day that turned out to be all about autographs.  Molly decided that today was to be full on character spotting, photos and autographs.

Molly autograph book in hand!!

I think this was as a result of walking into the park and discovering Mickey and Minnie's new meet and greet as we strolled along; we noticed there was no wait time so thought that can't be right???  Anyway as we approached we were greeted by a couple of lovely cast members who welcomed us in and said 'come along, they're all yours, no-one is waiting'.  So much to our surprise we walked straight through the queue area and right into the meet and greet area.  We had a fantastic time and were able to take as long as we wanted, and we got some fab photos with Mickey and Minnie in their safari get-ups!

Throughout the rest of the day we managed to get photos and autographs with some of the major players; Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Chip & Dale, Pooh and Tigger which meant Molly was a happy girl.

We also hit some major rides today, well I say we...but not all of us did all of them!  First up was Expedition Everest which the kids and Simon enjoyed whilst I decided to take in the scenery and the themeing and a little window shopping followed by trying to predict which train they would be on to catch them on camera and failed!

The themeing around here is amazing - just love it!

We then made our way round into Dinoland USA and rode a family favourite Primeval Whirl...the kids had a higher tolerance level for this ride than me and Simon so we grabbed a drink while they rode it time after time.

I lost count how many times they rode this, the queues were mega short so the kids took advantage.

We also took a ride on Dinosaur, a ride that we hadn't done for a few years and one which Molly had never done.  In fact the last time we had ridden it Simon and Ethan had gone on it alone and whilst on the ride vehicle realised that one of Simon's work colleagues was sat behind them - now that really does make it a small world after all!

Anyway back to this year...we joined the queue which moved at a reasonable pace and it wasn't too long before we boarded our vehicle.  We had just moved out of the loading area and were about to venture off into the time of dinosaurs when our car came to an abrupt stop...nothing happened...then the lights came on and we sat there...and sat there. Then technicians came up to the vehicle, walked around it a few times, looked at it, messed about under a panel and then walked away.  Back they came again and still we sat there...I was waiting for the inevitable 'really sorry but there's a problem we're going to have to close the ride'...but no we were in luck.  All of a sudden all the lights went off and we were plunged into darkness and in a few seconds our vehicle was on its way with thankfully no further interruptions.  Was it our vehicle that was at fault?  I don't know, but what I do know is that all the cast members were brilliant; they kept calm and just got on with the job at hand of getting us moving again.

Before we left Dinoland USA we managed to get in a photo op!

Then it was lunch at one of my favourites; Flame Tree BBQ, can't pass up the chance of a pulled pork sandwich! Followed by full on character meet and greets!

We ended our day at the Animal Kingdom with the kids taking full advantage of quiet lines for Expedition Everest riding it back to back at least four times...maybe more!

Actually managed to get a shot of the kids on the ride...honest they are on there, about two thirds back!

While Simon and I took the time to explore the Serka Zong Bazaar (the shop into which you exit the Expedition Everest ride)...

Again, awesome themeing!!

As it was coming to the end of the day for the Animal Kingdom we decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom for the evening.  So we took a bus over to the TTC (Transportation and Ticket Centre) before taking the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom.  We then decided that a third mode of transport was needed as we boarded the Walt Disney World Railroad for a trip around the park disembarking at New Fantasyland.  In need of a drink we decided that Gaston's Tavern was the ideal place and a chance to try LeFou's Brew...

Inside Gaston's Tavern

Posing with Gaston!!

Whilst enjoying the brew (apple flavour and sweet) we watched the Gaston 'Greet and Meet' going on just to the left of 'Bonjour Village Gifts'; it was so funny to watch.  Gaston was brilliant and such a poseur, I would love to see the results of the photos because the guests were totally unaware of the poses being pulled behind them.  It was a pure joy to watch and be entertained by.

After a quick ride on Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid - which I love - we headed over to Pinocchio's Village Haus for a spot of food followed by a ride on the Haunted Mansion.  By then it was time to make our way over to Main Street USA to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade. But on the way over there we just had to pick up a dole whip, well it would have been rude not to ;)

Yummy!!

It was then a case of find a spot and wait for the parade to begin...

Technology keeping the kids occupied

The obligatory selfie!

And the parade begins

And of course after the parade we watched Celebrate the Magic before one of my all time favourites and must-do's - Wishes Nightime Spectacular...at which I always shed a tear or three, I'm such a softie!

Waiting for Wishes :)

We rounded the night off with a visit to Starbucks for a chocolate cookie crumble frappuccino...

Starbucks and Walt Disney World - what more could a girl ask for ;)

And that was the end of another full day at Walt Disney World...who said vacations were a chance to stop and chill...not us!!