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 11

Well let's get back to what we got up to on our last visit to WDW.  I can't believe it's now over 6 months since we were last in my happy place and as I type we have no plans for another visit any time soon - the disadvantage of living over 4000 miles away and the subsequent travel costs!  But I continue to keep my Disney passion alive by reliving and sharing my memories.

So Day 11 - what did we do??

Well, we had a relatively slow start to the day with a full breakfast at our hotel before heading off to Blizzard Beach.  But we weren't going for a splash about, no we were going for the golf...mini golf to be exact.  It was time to visit Winter Summerland mini golf course;

..and having played the Winter course during our previous vacation in 2011 we decided that it was only right to play the Summer course this year;

We had great fun playing the course, although Molly did get a bit grumpy when her brother won!!  Although I did manage to get a couple of hole-in-ones!  Honest!!

Victory celebrations!!!

One unusual occurrence for us though was that it didn't rain, we seem to have a habit of playing mini golf in the rain but this time it stayed hot, dry and sunny.

After golf we hopped on a bus and headed over to Coronado Springs Resort; this was the resort that we should have been staying in before we got our unexpected hotel upgrade.  But as I'd done my pre-trip research all about Coronado Springs we thought we'd stop by and see what we were missing.

The Three Caballeros!!

Some beautiful views around the resort and around Lago Dorado

And I just had to have this photo taken...

...me 'running' around Lago Dorado...OK fake running!!  Well I did say that was one of my must do's for this vacation...unfortunately the hotel upgrade kind of got in the way of me achieving my goal for real ;)

It was lovely to walk around the resort, it really is beautiful.  The main pool area looked amazing although Molly was not happy at being made to look at it and not be able to use it as it had been one of the things about the hotel that she had been looking forward to. Although, one thing I will say is that the pool is very exposed to the sun, in that there is not much in the way of natural shade, so anyone thinking of going needs to bear this in mind, especially if with very young children who are prone to getting sunburnt!

I will agree with a lot of the reviews which I'd read before the vacation which made reference to the size and layout of the resort.  It is a big, spread out layout which could mean your room being a good distance from the main building and amenities.  I would guess it took us, with a leisurely stroll, about 20 minutes to walk around the circumference of Lago Dorado which could mean for some people that walk on a morning to have breakfast in the resort could add a bit of extra time onto your day.

One of the reasons that I have always loved Port Orleans French Quarter is for its relatively small size and compact layout when compared to other moderate resorts.  But smaller size may mean you miss out on things like table service restaurants...it really is a case of weighing up what's important to you on a vacation when you make your decision. For us a 'bit of a walk' to the main buildings at Coronado Springs didn't really bother us...it may have changed the way we did things though.  I wonder if we may have been more inclined to get on a bus early and have breakfast in the parks rather than take the extra time at the resort...who knows?  Maybe on our next visit we may have to give Coronado Springs another try!

Having explored the resort we then headed over to Disney's Hollywood Studios for the afternoon stopping for lunch at one of my favourite quick service eateries the Backlot Express.  Now I will admit it's not the best place for choice of food; it's your typical burger/hot dog/nugget type of establishment but it is big, and airy, with some great theming and free refills of soda!!

Once we were refuelled it was off into the park.  Molly took the chance to 'meet & greet' with Phineas and Ferb...

...which was followed by re-visiting 'The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow' following our failed attempt a few days earlier.  I have to say for a walk through attraction I really quite enjoyed it.  I wasn't expecting much in fact if truth be known I thought it might have been a bit lame and was only really doing it as it was a 'new' addition to the park since our previous trip. The whole experience was worth it of only for the amazing projection of Captain Jack at the end; brilliant technology at play.

We then had a brief stop for ice-creams...Mickey shaped of course...

...before we headed towards Animation Courtyard.  But as we approached we heard the sounds of the Monsters University Pep Rally and so took a slight detour to see what was happening; this resulted in me becoming the embarrassing parent...apparently it's not cool to dance along to 'The Cha-Cha Slide' in front of your teenage kids...who knew ;)

Ethan ignoring me, Molly trying to stop me dancing!

After embarrassing the kids we decided to venture into Animation Courtyard in hope of a new 'Meet & Greet' and sure enough we got to meet the stars of 'Wreck-It Ralph'.

As we made our way round to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster we bumped into friend and podcast co-host Michelle.  So whilst us ladies had a chat and a catch-up the rest of the family got thrown around on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.  We all then headed out of the park but not before taking advantage of the Disney Photopass+ to get a group photo...

Don't ask me how but we ended up with this pose! It's a hidden Mickey!!

Next we headed over to Swan & Dolphin resorts via boat..

...and then walked over to The Boardwalk.  Both Michelle and I had it on our respective 'To Do' lists to go into the Boardwalk Inn resort in search of a working carousel model that we had both heard about listening to Lou Mongello's WDW Radio, and look we found it!

Beautiful and it was working when we saw it.

Molly getting a little too comfy in an armchair inside the Boardwalk Inn lobby!!

And would you believe it the kids wanted yet more ice-cream...so who can resist a stop at the Seashore Sweets...well our two can't!!

How big???

Having filled the kids up with ice-cream we headed over to Epcot to finish off the evening in World Showcase, but this was the sky that greeted us as we made our way from the Boardwalk...

...yes you guessed it a sudden downpour occurred!!

Once we made it over to Epcot (and relatively dry too!) we headed to the World Showcase and more specifically Norway.  I had a couple of foods I'd heard about that I wanted to try over at the Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe...first the Roast Beef Sandwich followed by Rice Cream and both of which were lovely.  I think this eatery may become one of our must do's in future years.

Enjoying the Rice Cream - kind of a rice pudding topped with strawberry sauce

By now it was getting late and time to take the bus back to our hotel, time for feet up with a hot chocolate and then time for bed - night all!

WDW Summer 2013 - Day 9

So here we are at Day 9 of our last Disney vacation...we have had a busy and varied trip so far so what was in store for us on Day 9.

Well it was up and straight out heading to Disney's Hollywood Studios and a strategic start to the day!  We headed straight over to Toy Story Mania where we obtained fastpasses for later in the day but then also got to ride it as the queue was an OK sort of wait time - we have a rule that around 45 minutes is an acceptable maximum wait time.  Have to say I love this ride, it's always a good giggle and especially as we pair up against each other so it's either kids versus parents or girls against the boys and whilst I don't often win I do pretty good!

Afterwards we headed to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster...well I say we...I actually mean that Simon and the kids rode it whilst I waited patiently for them.  I'm not a lover of fast scary roller coasters so I'm more than happy to sit a ride out while the rest of the family get flung about!  This was Molly's first time on this ride and she loved it!

Me waiting patiently

Post Rock n Roller Coaster!

We then decided that a late breakfast/early snack was needed so we headed over to Writers Stop for coffee and a pastry...

Pastry of the enormous size!

...before heading over to Star Tours for a couple or three rides, because the queues were soooo long!!!!

Look how busy it is...not!!

It was then time to ride Toy Story Mania using our fastpasses followed by our first time on 'The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow'.  We had never bothered with the previous attraction here, Journey into Narnia, as it had never really appealed but we thought as this was brand new we would give it a go.  Well we must have been less than 3 minutes into the show when the lights went out...initially we thought it was part of the show but when we could see cast members coming to our rescue with flash lights we realised something had gone wrong.  This was then confirmed when the special effects projection screen came up with the infamous 'blue screen of death'...quite comforting to know that Disney have the same problems as you and I.  So having been escorted out of the ride down a very dark passageway we decided to pay a visit to Walt Disney: One Man's Dream which is one of my must do attractions as I love looking at the history of Disney and at all the models representing recent Disney expansions.  But as we walked through it became apparent that not everything was working as it should...we then heard that there had been a power outage of only a few seconds across the park that had caused all sorts of havoc!  Only glad we weren't stuck on a roller coaster when it happened!!!

Following lunch at ABC Commissary we caught some of the Monsters University live show before sitting down to enjoy Beauty & The Beast Live on Stage.

The 'boys' getting all techy waiting for Beauty & The Beast

It had been a few years since we'd last seen the show but I love the movie.  I remember seeing the movie at the cinema when it first came out and being blown away, especially by the then new and exciting computer aided animation technology (remember this was way back in 1991). So seeing the live stage show had been on my 'to do' list for this vacation, and I wasn't disappointed, it was as magical as ever. Where else in the world can you see Broadway class performances as part of your vacation?!!

We now decided to head over to Epcot...

Leaving the Studios

 ...and we went by boat!  A nice leisurely trip over to the World Showcase entrance to Epcot although our first stop was to walk over to Future World and Club Cool for some thirst quenching, refreshing and free drinks...and yes Simon drank the Beverley again!  It was then over to Spaceship Earth as it had been closed for refurbishment during the earlier part of our vacation and this was our first chance to ride it, although we weren't really aware of any specific changes, but it's still one of our favourite attractions.

And then as the sun began to set we made our way over to World Showcase, stopping for a bite to eat in Mexico at La Cantina de San Angel, another favourite stop for counter service food.  And as we made our way around the World Showcase I indulged in one of my favourites...

Frozen Margarita time

Whilst I sipped my way along the kids decided to have another Phineas and Ferb: Agent P's World Showcase Adventure this time in Norway.

Playing Phineas & Ferb

And as we were in Norway I got chance to complete another one of my 'To Do' items for this vacation - try 'School Bread' from Kringla Bakeri og Kafe...and oh my was it yummy!!!  Sweet cardomom bun, vanilla cream custard and coconut...mmmm!!! Thankfully the kids weren't overly impressed so at least I know for future reference that I can order this and have it to myself without anyone saying 'mum, can I have a bite please' - why do kids always want to eat their parents food?!

Norway - School Bread

Full of sweet goodness and margarita we decided to call it a night and headed 'home', and rather than catch the monorail we decided to travel by bus, this was the view across a near empty parking lot..

End of the day

Turns out the bus was a good choice as there had been some problems with the monorail which was causing all sorts of fun and games.  Suffice to say we got back to the Wilderness Lodge had an evening feast of chips and popcorn and headed for the land of nod.