Day 8 Orlando time! Flight to MCO, Mustang, getting lost, POFQ, Anna & Elsa and dinner at Be Our Guest

Previous day is here

Welcome to our trip report. I'm Emily & my Husband is Gary - we got married on 5 March 2016 & spent our honeymoon in NYC, Washington DC & Orlando. Our pre-trip report is here if you want to have a look at our plans.

Monday 14th March

We woke up about 8am, feeling much much better after our restful night and long sleep. And we were very excited that it was Florida time ! We got up and got ready, doing some last minute packing. We had a quick breakfast in the hotel.

Time for Disney!

Reception phoned about 9.25 to say our taxi was there to take us to Dulles. We'd planned on getting the metro on the silver line then the flyer bus, but we decided that since we were so exhausted, had taken the second cabin case out so had even more luggage to manoeuvre and we were on our honeymoon (I loved using this as an excuse to spend money) we would just pay for a taxi. Reception had said it would be a flat rate and take about 45 mins to an hour. When we got in he put the meter on so I asked about a flat rate and he said $85. We agreed this so the meter went off. We had a friendly driver, he was from Ethiopia but had been in DC for 10 years. Gary spoke to him for a bit and I watched the sights out the window.

Goodbye DC

It took us about 15/20 mins to get out of the city in rush hour traffic. We got to the airport about 10.15, so the hotels 45 min estimate was right. We checked in at the automated United booths, with a little help putting the sticky labels on the check in bags from the agent. We dropped our bags and we were through security and on the train to terminal c by 10.38. The sign said they run every 4 minutes but there was one waiting so we got on. This was a very smooth process and Dulles was a very clean airport! The automatic train was cool, super fast too.



We found our gate and got some breakfast. Gary got a ham & cheese croissant from Au Bon Pain, along with coffee for us both, a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade. This was $12.03. I then went to Aunt Anne's and got cheese stuffed pretzel bites for $5 something.

These were delicious!

There was nothing caramel or macchiato about my coffee though so I binned it and went to Starbucks and got a caramel frappuccino. While we were sitting at the gate, they kept announcing that our flight was full and asking for bags to check and people to volunteer for standby.

Goodbye wet DC

We were boarded and in our seats by 12pm. We pushed back from the gate at 12.34, the exact departure time on our boarding pass. We drove out (do planes drive?!) for a good 10 mins before we were ready to take off. The Pilot announced that we should be landing about 2.35 local time, so we settled in for the flight. After a slightly bumpy start we landed at 2.30pm. We had to wait a few mins to be taxi'd into the gate and the seat belt sign went off at 2.37.

We were through to baggage collection very quickly as we were on a domestic flight, but our luggage took ageeeeees. They announced the belt had changed at 3.20 so we moved over, then heard someone from our flight say they'd gotten their luggage at the original belt, so I went back to have a look . We got our bags eventually (from the original belt!) and we had the hire car and were on our way out of the airport by 3.55. I’d signed up for Avis preferred and linked our booking, so we went straight to the garage. Our name wasn’t on the board as it was our first time so we went to the window and the woman had us sorted in no time. We had last years Ford Mustang convertible in red. Gary was ecstatic!



I had been quite worried about getting all our luggage in after reading how small they were on here, but we had no trouble. Gary put one big case and one cabin case in the boot, the other big one and other cabin one in the back seats along with his backpack and my big Cath Kidston bag.



Definitely couldn't have fit if we had any more people but with 2 we were absolutely fine.

90 fahrenheit...toasty

After a slight detour in to the taxi car park and a fight over what to do next, a mears driver rolled his window down and asked where we were headed. We said Disney & he directed us! Phew. We managed the first few tolls but didn't know the last one was un manned and coins only...we didn't have enough and Gary had packed the tin full of coins in the locked suitcase in the boot. So we had to drive through. Que another stressful few crossed words! We still haven't been charged for this on the CC but decided not to worry about it.

After finally crossing under the arches to WDW, we were here!



Well almost, we had a slight detour to animal kingdom where the parking attendant told us to head towards Disney springs for POFQ. We thought we were lost again but we weren't, and we finally got there at 4.40. (Spoiler - Once we got Mapmans map out of my folder we never got lost again! It was so useful.)



We checked in, the CM was lovely and she gave us our badges. I nipped to the loo and when I came out Gary was chatting away to a very friendly CM, who asked about our trip so far and gave us some tips about the resort. She was lovely . We quickly grabbed a meal to share from the food court as we were starving but knew we had our BOG reservation at 7.25. I don't have notes or a picture of this sorry!

Our car park/tree view

I had requested a room on a higher floor and we were given a corner room on floor 3 of building 3. The resort isn’t massive anyway but this was a good location. Having a corner room meant 2 windows and it was so quiet, we never heard anyone pass by or anything. We loved POFQ and would return without question, the theming was beautiful and it was so peaceful.

Building 3 - our room is the top corner one

We got to our room and decided that our 5.05-6.05 SDMT FP+ wasn't going to happen as it was 5.05 by then and we didn't want to rush. I thought this might be pushing it anyway when I booked it (I couldn't get any later) so we had another booked for later in the trip. We ate the meal and unpacked a bit, and by 6.05pm we were driving to Magic Kingdom .



We parked in Villains side Scar 11.

We headed for the ferry, the captain saw our badges & congratulated us as we boarded over the loud speaker.

Excited faces off to MK

We had a great journey over and were really excited, then the security guard at the gate decided that Gary’s go pro stick counted as a selfie stick and made us queue at will call to check it in :angry:. His fault and I was not amused, we still weren't in the park and it was almost 7! Anyway, we got through the gates eventually and we were in .



We got some photo pass pics on the way up Main Street and then went to meet Anna & Elsa.

The little girl behind us in the FP queue said she'd been waiting 3 years to meet them, she was so cute. I now understand how people cry watching their children meet the characters, I had tears in my eyes for this little girl I didn't even know! We met them and it was quite funny, they congratulated us on getting married and Elsa told us to give Anna some advice as we said we’d been together 8 years before getting married!



By the time we came out it was 7.20 so off to Be our Guest we went. We checked in and waited on the bridge for 5/10 minutes, then they called me in and we were seated by 7.35 in the main ball room. My photos from BOG are quite dark, my iPhone wasn't keen on the dull lighting and I didn't want to flash too much.




I so hoped we'd be sat here so was really pleased! We got some bread and Gary ordered the steak and I had the chicken Both were tasty and we were pleased to be having proper meat and veg meals.



Then we both had the grey stuff - it's delicious ask the dishes! It really was though, I’ve read mixed things on here but as a lover of dessert and all things sweet I enjoyed it. Once we’d finished and charged the bill to our magic bands, we had a wander round the other rooms and I got a photo with Lumiere.



We then waited a few minutes to meet the beast, who was busy talking to Mrs Potts.




We were done dinner by 8.40 and out by 8.55 having met with the master. I didn't take a note of how much dinner was sorry, but working it out online I think it was about $90. Expensive but worth it for the experience. I would definitely return here on a future trip (hopefully with free dining!). It was still 26 degrees celsius, so for mid March we seemed to be lucking out with the weather again, didn't need the zippers we'd packed for tonight.

We headed to Haunted Mansion for our 9.10pm fast pass and Mickey went green 3 minutes early so in we went. Enjoyed this, it was good to do in the dark. When we came out, we wandered round and saw some of the Main Street electrical parade.



We joined the BTMR queue at 9.36 as it showed a 30 minute wait time which we thought was ok. It was actually less than 10 and we were done by 9.50! This is one of my favourite rides from Florida and Paris. My Dad always held the bags when I was younger, not being a fan of the rides, but he always came on this .

We then walked to the left hand side of Main Street and watched wishes. It was busy but we still managed to find a spot to watch.

Very happy to be in MK

I hadn't planned on definitely watching it this first night but I’m so glad we managed to. There may have been tears in my eyes!

We then squeezed our way through the crowds over to Tomorrowland and joined the buzz queue at 10.20. It said a 10 minute wait but we were out by 10.28.

Gary won by a small margin...

We then got some more photo pass pictures outside Space Mountain and joined the queue at 10.31. It said 65 mins, Gary convinced me it wouldn't be that long as BTMR hadn’t been anywhere near its posted time. I wasn't so sure, thinking that had just been a flook, but thought we may as well join the queue instead of fighting the crowds up Main Street. We were out about 11.10 so it definitely wasn’t the 65 minutes posted wait time. We found this to be a bit of a theme throughout our trip, hardly ever waiting for the posted time.

We went to the Starbucks bakery on Main Street on the way out for some juice and tea. We also got the mini You Are Here cup for the Christmas tree!

We picked up Gary’s go pro stick from guest relations and got on the monorail. We were in the car at 00.10 and back at POFQ at 00.25…without getting lost this time woo !

We really enjoyed our first evening in MK, we managed to do some of the rides I’d loved as a teenager and it was exciting watching Wishes and soaking up the atmosphere, knowing we had so much Disney excitement to look forward to . We were really pleased with Photopass already, it was so nice having good pictures with both of us in. We used this loads over the next 10 days and got some fab pictures, but this one is one of my favourites (already posted above, but I love it!)



We enjoyed NYC and Washington DC but we both agree that Orlando was our favourite part of our honeymoon .

Thanks for reading

I'm really enjoying your trip report so far! Washington has never been somewhere I've thought about visiting but your few days there sounded really good! Liking the idea of Segway instead of walking too

Sounds like this was a great evening! We're staying at POFQ for the first time next year so I always enjoy seeing photos of that too. The last photo of you both is a lovely one

What a lovely pic - it's great that everyone in the background is the other way so you two really stand out.

Yummy meal & lots of great rides done- what a fab first night X

Thank you . It's lovely to know people are enjoying reading. The segways were brilliant fun .

POFQ is such a beautiful resort! We'll definitely return

I wasn't expecting to get so much in, so I was really pleased we had such a great night! Thanks for reading x

POFQ looks so lovely! Would love to stay there sometime. We had a corner room at CBR last year and found that the extra window made all the difference to the light

My husband absolutely destroyed me on Buzz so you're not alone x

It's a beautiful resort, we really liked it .

Haha glad I'm not the only one! I do get my own back eventually on a similar ride though x

Where did you get your Donald rucksack? Its fab and I've just started looking for something like this for our next trip in October!

Great trip report btw - you must takes loads of notes and photos to be able to remember all of this!

We had to tag our own luggage with United too and I was so paranoid it was going to fall off; when we got back to Edinburgh my case wasn't with OH's (they usually appear together on the belt) and I was REALLY panicking.

Your car is awesome! We might splurge on a Mustang next year.

You really notice the difference the extra window makes in your room, so much brighter.

That really is a lovely picture.

It's Vans. We have a Vans shop in Glasgow but they sell them in Schuh and online too. I tried to talk Gary in to the matching shoes but he wasn't up for it . Thank you . I quite enjoyed making notes as we waited in queues etc, it helped pass the time!

The Mustang was brilliant . Such a big car though, it was so much wider than it looked. We booked it during the BA sale and it wasn't much more than the mid-size category.

Thanks for reading & commenting .

Congratulations! Lovely pictures of you both.