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Hello everyone,
If you had been following our Twitter last week, you will know that we spent 5 days in WDW over the Easter period.
Of course, going to WDW is nothing new for us (!), and so I don't usually post a review or trip report these days, but, there were a lot of new things on this trip that we hadn't experienced before, so I thought I would cover them in a short photo report (as opposed to a full trip report), so that you can all see some of our adventures.
We stayed at the Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa for the first time. It was pretty, but definitely not my favourite, and would be way down the list compared to other resorts.
For Easter WDW had the Easter Bunnies out in Magic Kingdom's Town Square and EPCOT's UK pavilion. We had met them before in Town Square a few years ago, but never in EPCOT.
Also for Easter, WDW also had a pre-parade at the Magic Kingdom. They usually do this every year, but this year they added a little bit more to it, which was nice.
On Easter Sunday, many of the hotel resorts had special character appearances for Easter. We managed to make it over to the Contemporary, Polynesian and Grand Floridian to check out who was there.
For Spring, the Magic Kingdom's Trolley Show also had a Spring overlay, and a different soundtrack.
We met Chip and Dale in Frontierland, for the first time since they moved.
We saw the new Celebrate the Magic! projection show at Cinderella Castle.
Of course, the biggest thing of all was New Fantasyland! We explored all of Belle's Village (except Enchanted Tales, which we had previewed on our previous trip and didn't care for again!), dined at Be Our Guest for dinner, rode the new Little Mermaid attraction (definitely an improvement over DCA's!), and met Ariel in her Grotto. We also met Minnie and Friends on the Silly Sideshow for the first time. The rest of Storybook Circus had been open before when we went.
Over at Hollywood Studios we intended to go into the new Jack Sparrow attraction, but it was always crazy busy, and we couldn't be bothered to wait! (We never wait in lines!)
For the first time in eons (at least several years!) we made time to see the Beauty and the Beast show, the Indiana Jones stunt show, Jedi Training Academy and Fantasmic! I had actually forgotten how different WDW's Fantasmic! is to Disneyland's, and how much better Disneyland's is!
We also caught up with some of the Studios' entertainment, including Mulch, Sweat and Shears, and some of the Citizens of Hollywood.
Also, for the first time, we met Woody and Buzz at their indoor location, at PIXAR Place! Again, seeing as it always has very long lines, and we've met Woody and Buzz before, this had never been a high priority, but this trip we finally took the plunge!
We had dinner at BOMA at Animal Kingdom Logde one night. Visiting AKL was a first for me. It's a really beautiful resort, and I would love to stay there one day!
One morning we had breakfast at Ohana at the Polynesian, which is probably my favourite hotel resort and restaurant at WDW! I love the hotel, I love the breakfast, and of course it has Stitch! All round win! It had been a while since we had been over there, so it was great to revisit. One evening we also took it easy, and got a drink at their pool bar by the beach. Perfection!
We also visited Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club for the first time. We had heard about their (in)famous ice creams, and wanted to check it out. We didn't order the Kitchen Sink, but what we had was huge, and very nice!
At Animal Kingdom I finally sat in Flights of Wonder to take a few pictures, but didn't stay long as it isn't that great of a show.
Over at EPCOT we took tons of photos of the Flower and Garden Festival, as we always do! We always seem to catch F&GF, which is nice.
Some character changes had happened since our last trip too, including Character Spot being temporarily moved while they create the new version. This meant Mickey and co have new temporary backdrops while they wait for their new location to be done.
Goofy has now replaced Stitch at the main entrance (sadly), and Daisy also has a backdrop at the entrance now too.
We also met Chip and Dale, who are always in Future World, but it was their birthday the day of our visit! So of course we had to stop by!
We saw the Ziti Sisters comedy act at Italy for the first time, and ate at Nine Dragons in China for the first time.
We converted our Premier APs to the new RFID ones at the Odyssey Center. The highlight for me was just being able to go inside the Center, seeing as it's been closed to the public for so long! They had a neat display of some old EPCOT stuff, including an original Figment animatronic.
Finally for EPCOT, we also got to experience the new Test Track. While I agree it's definitely an improvement on the original, I'm not convinced by the create your sim car thing.
Of course we did a lot more on our trip too, but those were the specific things that stood out as being new or different in some way.
Ok, that's everything! Hope you enjoyed reliving our adventures!
Dan. |