Lauren and Bob's September Disneymoon Trip Report UPDATED: FINALLY COMPLETED!

Oops - I thought I'd posted Day 8 but it's disappeared. I have a whole post typed up for Day 9 but I can't post it now as it's out of sync. I've saved it to a word document and will need to redo Day 8 tomorrow. Sorry about this. Hang tight. It's coming.

Day 8:
I posted this already but something must have gone wrong with the post because it disappeared, so I'm redoing it.

We got up, skipped breakfast, and made a beeline for Animal Kingdom.

We spied the guys from Up on our way in.

We then got talked into going in to see It's Tough to Be a Bug. It was good but kind of gross.

Then we shot straight for Everest. I'd never been on this before as it wasn't there last time I was at Animal Kingdom.

OMG BEST RIDE EVER. This is now my favourite rollercoaster. I LOVE RIDES THAT GO BACKWARDS. I wanted to go on again!

But instead we went to Restaurantosaurus and got lunch. We noticed that the AK counter service places didn't have a great veggie selection. I think I will make an ADR at Tusker House next time. Anyway, Bob got a mac & cheese hotdog, which looked incredible, and I got a black bean burger. It was good - the avocado spread was the best bit!

We donated $5 to the conservation fund and I got this badge which I then used to weigh my lanyard down. Good investment.

Bob instructed me to stand in front of this guy and make a dinosaur face.

Then Bob stood with this guy.

Another dinosaur face.

Then we went on Dinosaur. It was okay but we thought you spent too much time in the dark.

Oh my, I loved this place. I could have spent ages here if we'd had the time.

But we just took a spin on Primeval Whirl, which was fun.

Then it was time for the Festival of the Lion King. We were in the elephant section.


This show was incredible. Seriously, it blew my mind.

There were lots of people ignoring the 'no flash photography' thing, which bugged me, as I thought it might be distracting for the performers.



I remember coming to AK years ago with my Mum and her being generally unimpressed, even with this show! I can't believe she didn't like it as it was brilliant. She's not into animals, which I guess would explain why.

When we came out, it was pouring, so it was time to put on our super stylish ponchos.


We popped in to meet Chip and Dale since we were in the area.

While we were in line, I asked if we should meet them in our ponchos, and a girl in front said we totally should because it would make for a great photo, so that's what we did. We were soaked at this point!

It was raining very heavily at this point, and we'd done most of the indoor attractions, so we made the tactical decision to head back to the resort and dry off before our ADR at House of Blues.

Before we knew it, it was time to get all dressed up and head to DTD.

My husband's a hottie.

We had a couple of hours to kill before our ADR so we did a little shopping.

Then we went up to Planet Hollywood to stick our hands in the handprints. Traditionally I always put my hands in Marilyn Monroe's imprint, because I'm a crazy Monroe fan - I have her tattooed on my thigh, for real! However, we figured out that Marilyn's handprints must be up at the restaurant itself, and we didn't have an ADR there, so we made do with the others.

Bob had to get a photo of Patrick Stewart's handprints.

And of course, Sigourney Weaver's.

My namesake, Lauren Bacall.

Bob was very pleased to learn he had the same size hands as Captain Kirk (William Shatner).

And I was equally chuffed to find I had the same size hands as Dolly Parton.

We went for our House of Blues ADR nice and early.

We got lovely seats on the conservatory.

Bob had his first ever Samuel Adams.

I had the lobster mac & cheese. It was the single best thing I ate all holiday. I will be coming back to House of Blues every time we visit and ordering this same meal!

Bob had meatloaf, which he said was amazing.

Then we shared a key lime pie, which was so light but tasty. Maybe this was the best thing I ate all holiday. Okay, this meal, hands down, best meal of the trip. Carrie Sue served us and she was brilliant. We left a $27 tip for a $43 meal - that's how good this food and service was!

DTD selfie. We went into the merch store after and I ended up getting an amazing t-shirt. Kara served us and she was hilarious. She had us in hysterics talking about differences between the UK and US.

Then it was onto Pleasure Island for drinks.

We went to Paradiso 37 for cocktails.

I forgot to warn Bob how big the large souvenir cups were so he ordered two without thinking.

We only managed under half of each before throwing the rest down a water fountain. We didn't even end up keeping the cups as they were too big to transport so we left them in our room!

A girl called Lindsey Lee was performing. She was pretty good. I was singing along and so was another woman in mouse ears at the next table. No one else seemed that interested, which was a shame.

On our way back we stopped at the pin trader's as I was addicted to pins.

When we got back to the resort, I snapped a picture of my purchases.

Lauren's Favourite Attraction/Moment: Expedition Everest.
Bob's Favourite Attraction/Moment: Expedition Everest.
What I Learned That Day: AK's veggie selection isn't great. The souvenir glasses at Paradiso 37 are enormous.

Day 9:
We started off the day with some pancakes in the resort. Bob was very hungover.

After breakfast, we went for one last swim in the Flippin' Fins pool. I wore my Black Milk Alice & the Caterpillar swimsuit.


And had to get photos with my matching Alice tattoo.

Minnie and Marie guarded our room while we were out.

After swimtimes we headed to Epcot to do World Showcase.

We popped into the Mickey Gear shop. I couldn't resist posing as a cowgirl.

Then it was on to the Mexico pavilion.

We hopped straight onto the Mexico boat ride. I always remember enjoying this ride despite its lack of popularity.

It was cute.

Then it was on to Norway!


Of course we went on the Maelstrom. I LOVE this ride. This was the highlight of World Showcase for me as a child. IT GOES BACKWARDS. BEST RIDE EVER.

After Norway, it was on to China. I love this pavilion. It might be my favourite.


We went and watched Reflections of China. We thought it was incredibly beautiful.


I had to pose with my homeboy, Buddha.


Two of my biggest passions in this universe are Buddhism and cute animals, particularly pandas. Needless to say, this was my favourite gift shop and I spent a long time here agonising over what to buy. In the end, I bought a little gold Buddha for my extensive Buddha collection, but they wrapped him up before I thought to take a picture.

Another one of my big passions is tea. We bought a Mango Green Tea Slushie to share. I could have happily spent all day in China. As we were having tea, we missed out on meeting Mulan and made a mental note to try and catch her later.

But Bob was itching to get to Japan, so on we skipped over Italy, Germany and America, and went straight on to Japan.

This was Bob's favourite pavilion.


It's so beautiful! We also could have spent all day here!

We were very excited to find the anime exhibition. Bob is REALLY into anime so he basically freaked out.

I play a lot of Animal Crossing so I made Bob take a photo of Tom Nook.

We went into Katsura Grill for some lunch. It was adorable. Bob got Tempura Shrimp Udon and I got a Tokyo Sushi Combo, and we both got an Iced Green Tea, which was AMAZING. I've been craving Iced Green Tea ever since.




Bob (predictably) freaked out in the Japan gift shop. I also freaked over the Hello Kitty stuff.

We stopped by Morocco in an attempt to meet Aladdin and Jasmine, but they weren't returning for a while, so we kept going.

But as we were passing through France, we joined the line to meet Belle and were successful in meeting her. She asked if Bob was my beast.

She told me I looked beautiful and that my outfit was perfect for adventures. She was the loveliest princess ever.

I was so excited to meet Belle, I completely forgot to pose and just grinned like a maniac!

This amazing princess encounter more than made up for my disappointing Ariel encounter. It was wonderful, and it got me super psyched to try and meet more princesses!

After meeting Belle, we were all set to go into Impressions de France, but then we realised we were running late for meeting Aladdin and Jasmine, so we hotfooted it back to Morocco and joined the line.

Queue pictures.

Aladdin and Jasmine were nice. Bob is proud of this photo as he thinks his arms look more muscular than Aladdin's.

Before we knew it, it was time for Alice's last meeting time of the day, and so we shot all the way around World Showcase to meet her. We were on a hardcore character meeting mission! When we got there, there was a short queue for Mary Poppins, but no one in line for Alice, so we decided to skip Mary and were first in line to meet Alice, giving us a chance to snap a photo outside the cottage before she arrived.

Alice was so perky! She was fantastic!

I adore this photo!

Last character meet of the day was Mulan! We went all the way back to China to try and catch her and fortunately, we did! She asked if Bob was my warrior.

Then she pointed out my 'medals of honour'. She was lovely.

After Mulan, we decided it was time for a frozen margarita, so we went back along to Mexico. Bob got mango. I said, 'Can I have strawberry please?' but the guy thought I said, 'Lime and strawberry, please', so that's what I got. It was amazing. Good mistake.

We had a wee seat at China and had our margaritas. Bob got another cold drink headache. These were amazing but they made us very tipsy!

I loved the Morocco fountain and insisted on a photo with it.

Then we headed back to France.

And caught Impressions de France. We don't remember much about it as we were pretty tired, tipsy and hungry by this point.

Bob felt the need to do this.

The shops in France were amazing!


Bob had the great idea of baguettes for dinner.

I had brie, apple and cranberry, and Bob had ham and cheese, and then we shared this adorable dessert. I also had an espresso (which was amazing, and much needed!) and Bob had a white coffee. This was my favourite counter service dinner. <3 Must definitely come back here!

I loved these posters. This lady was my favourite! <3




After dinner we spent a bit of time just wandering around France. It was lovely, very romantic. It made me want to go to Paris for real next year.

Bob instructed me to hang off the lamp-post.

After France, we went back around to the UK, for a little taste of home, and to scope out a spot for the fireworks.

I was amused by the translations on the ground.

We went into the Rose & Crown, which I have to admit, was very like pubs back home in terms of styling!

We got two pints of Stella, because we're super classy like that. We were served by Hayley from Edinburgh, which was nice, as Bob's from Edinburgh too! She was pretty surly actually.

Then we grabbed a spot between Canada and the UK to watch the fireworks. This band were performing. They were weird as they were clearly Canadian but playing in kilts with bagpipes? It was pretty entertaining and nice to be reminded of home.

Firework spot selfie!

The view was spectacular!

Bob took about a million shots of the moon because it was so clear and he was drunk.

I'll only bore you with two though. We chatted to a lovely guy from New Jersey who had brought his family to Disney for the first time and was having a wonderful trip. It was lovely standing looking over World Showcase Lagoon at night. I said to Bob I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right at that moment. We didn't even mind waiting a while for the show to start as it was such a wonderful view.

Then the fireworks started.


They were spectacular. I have a few more fireworks photos but I have run out of storage space in my Photobucket because of ALL THE DISNEY PHOTOS, so I'll stop there.

This was my favourite day of the honeymoon. It was just so magical getting to go around the whole world in one day. Another time, I would love, if possible to stay nearer to Epcot and visit World Showcase whenever we felt like it. I know it's not a full park but it's my favourite park anyway. This was just the most magical romantic day ever!

Lauren's Favourite Moment/Attraction: I genuinely loved every minute of this day. I can't pick just one highlight. It was the absolute best day ever.
Bob's Favourite Moment/Attraction: Japan!
What I Learned That Day: World Showcase is the most beautiful place in the whole of Disneyworld.

Day 10 (Day-time):
Last day.

We went back to Animal Kingdom to do a couple of the things we had missed out on because of the rain.

And went on Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Animal Kingdom was really busy that day so we waited a while to get on.

But of course, it was worth the wait!


Big circle of hippos!


Crocodiles!




YAY! Giraffes!



Oh my, the elephants were so cool!

I'm also a big flamingo fan.

Zebras were my favourite! And apparently they're black with white stripes, not white with black stripes. You learn something new every day.


After the Safari, it was onto the Kali River Rapids.


You can't really tell in this picture but I got UTTERLY SOAKED. A massive wave went right down my top.

Bob got pretty wet, but not as wet as me.

Then we popped into Pizzafari for some lunch.

Bob got pepperoni and I got vegetable. As I've previously mentioned, we ate a lot of these individual pizzas as they were really easy, filling and tasty.

We snapped a photo of this Komodo Dragon. It was really cool.

Then we went through the Maharaja Wildlife Trail. This sign amused us.

WE LOVE BATS.

THEY WERE SO AWESOME.

I could have stayed looking at the bats all day!

Then there were the tigers.

It was very crowded and there were a lot of people trying to get in to see them. I got quite anxious and moved to one side while Bob took pictures.

After the Wildlife Trail, we decided to head back to the resort and relax before MNSSHP. Unfortunately, we are a bit silly and somehow managed to get on the wrong bus, probably because we were really tired. We ended up getting the bus to the All Star resorts, so I made the decision that we should get off at All Star Movies and have a look around.


Bob perked up about getting the wrong bus when he saw the Star Wars things.

And I was happy to see Wizard of Oz.

Then we went straight to the Toy Story area to have a look at the giant Woody and Buzz figures.

Woody.

Bob posing with Rex.

Me with Buzz.

And with Bo Peep, who I was very happy to see! We got a bus to Hollywood Studios, then one to AoA to get changed for the Halloween party.

Day 10 Night-time and MNSSHP to follow!

Day 10 (Night-time)

After packing our cases and having a short rest we got changed into our costumes and headed to the Magic Kingdom. This was my costume.

When we got to the Magic Kingdom, we went in and met Mickey.

He was smitten.


This was Bob's costume! Matching Mickey mitts!


When we got out, this parade was on.



Mr Incredible was, in Bob's words, 'crotch dancing'.



I posed in my Minnie costume outside the castle on our way to Princess Storybook Hall.

I loved this Rapunzel painting!

And Mulan. The wait time said 40 minutes but we basically just walked in.

Rapunzel was great. I told her she was my favourite princess.



Then we posed for a couple of photos together.

I invited Bob in, explaining that he was a big fan too. She asked if he had a smoulder like Flynn. He demonstrated. Rapunzel didn't seem impressed. She asked if I ever break his smoulder with a frying pan and I said sometimes.

Then I met Snow White. She was LOVELY.


She was really nice about my costume and said she was going to tell Minnie all about it.

I think she was really excited that we were on honeymoon.


Her voice actually really reminded us of Betty Boop's at IoA. We had been advised by a cast member to find a parade spot in Frontierland, so we headed down there next.

Country Bear Jamboree was just starting, so we went in! I literally ran in because I was buzzing with excitement. I love this show, especially the bear who comes down on the swing. Bob was a little freaked out by some of the bears though!

Then we went into Pecos Bill for a quick dinner.

I got a veggie burger, and Bob got pulled pork. Bob's was amazing. I had a long wait for an average veggie burger. It was disappointing.

We had bought one of these funky bags for carrying our candy around in.

We did a bit of candy collecting.

Then scoped out a parade spot.

The parade was great!

We didn't manage to get great photos though.




The best thing EVER happened at this point. Peter Pan came right up to me, lifted my lanyard up, put his nose towards it and shouted, 'Say! Buried treasure!' I was so excited, I was bouncing up and down for a good two minutes!






Jack Sparrow!

I loved these guys!





Brer Rabbit was high fiving everyone.

Then came the villains.

haha we only managed to get a shot of Jafar's back!

The Evil Queen was fantastic!

Then the Goofy Candy Company finished off the parade.

I managed to get a Goofy lollipop.

After some more candy collecting, we ran down to the castle to catch the Villains Mix and Mingle.

It was great getting to see Dr. Facilier! There was definitely not a lot of Princess and the Frog stuff in the parks.




It was also great getting to see Frollo!

Unfortunately we didn't manage to meet any villains. We tried queuing for Maleficent but the meeting session was very disorganised and a lot of rude people were pushing past. In the end I was getting quite anxious as I don't like crowds, so we decided to give up and go do something easier. We tried to get into The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh but it was off at that point because of a 'honeyspill on the tracks'. At this point I was feeling genuinely devastated at having missed meeting any villains and it seemed like everything was going wrong. I felt like our last night was being ruined by rude people and bad luck. Bob said it was a sign that our 'Disney Fu' was running out and it was time to go home. He convinced me to go down to Belle's village to see if we could meet my hero, Gaston.

We decided to go in to Enchanted Tales with Belle to cheer me up a bit.


The cottage was lovely! I was totally having a crazed fangirl moment at this point!


As we needed to wait for 20 people before the show could start, a cast member advised us that we could get a great view of the fireworks from outside. This was lovely. I felt a hundred times better standing outside Belle's cottage watching the fireworks on my last night in the Magic Kingdom than being pushed around in queues.
Enchanted Tales was lovely! The magic mirror seemed to malfunction somewhat when we were waiting to go through it, and the guy who was hosting it had to keep talking to distract the children while we waited for it to work. He did a great job! Bob was really impressed with him and told him he'd done really well on the way out.

We took a few photos on Bob's phone.





Then fate stepped in. We stepped out of Enchanted Tales, and there he was, with almost no line! I could have cried with happiness. Meeting Gaston more than made up for missing out on all the villains earlier. Gaston said to me, 'Be careful, you don't want to make him too jealous'. Then Bob told Gaston I'd said I was going to run away with him! (Which, in fairness, I had said but it was pretty embarrassing!) Then as I was walking away, Gaston said, 'Do you want some candy? I've got candy!' so I got loads of candy from him too! I was so happy about this whole encounter. I'm amused by how he's like a foot taller than me!

Then, YAY, Winnie the Pooh was back on, so that's what we did! After that, we decided we were too tired to do any more, so we did a little shopping then thought it was a good time to head back to the resort. I got pretty teary leaving the Magic Kingdom for the last time. Overall, I thought MNSSHP was really good, but that the only downside was the crowds. I think if we went back, which I do think we will do, I'd want to spend less time trying to see specific things and more time just enjoying the party. I think if we were to go back, I'd go as short-haired Rapunzel, as I didn't see anyone who'd done that!

When we got back to the resort, we got a photo of all the things we'd bought that night - Alice in Wonderland tea, a few pins for my lanyard (And a Darkwing Duck pin for Bob), a patchwork Marie figurine and a Mickey sorcerer watch for Bob, plus two full bags of candy! I was very sad it was over but our lovely things softened the blow a little.

Lauren's Favourite Moment/Attraction: Peter Pan coming right up to me and admiring my 'buried treasure' during the Boo-to-You parade.
Bob's Favourite Moment/Attraction: The guy at Belle's house who did a great job of keeping everyone entertained while they fixed the magic door.
What I Learned That Day: MNSSHP is a really great and unique event, worth the money for sure, but it can get very crowded and it's best to just take things slow and enjoy it.

Day 11:
We got up in the morning and headed to Landscape of Flavours for one last breakfast.

I got my favourite, chocolate chip pancakes, and savoured every mouthful!

This was how my lanyard looked by the end of the week. I'd removed the Snow White and Cinderella from the starter pack and decided to put them on a princess lanyard I had started for a friend back home who loves Disney. We picked up our packed cases and took them down to Animation Hall. We had one last look in the Ink and Paint store, where we bought a few last minute things, and then headed for the Magical Express.

This is me at Orlando International Airport waiting for our flight. We shared a tuna croissant and a Hershey cookies and cream bar at the airport. I couldn't believe it was over so fast but the one thing that was keeping me positive was knowing that I could go home and type up this report.

Overall Highlights of Our Trip - Sorry, I got a bit carried away here!
Lauren's Favourite Park: World Showcase, even though it's not a full park!
Bob's Favourite Park: Hollywood Studios

Lauren's Favourite Ride: Expedition Everest
Lauren's Favourite Show: Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Lauren's Favourite Night-time Entertainment Spectacle: Celebrate the Magic
Lauren's Favourite Character Meet: Marie, or Belle
Lauren's Favourite Magical Disneymoon Moment: Standing overlooking World Showcase Lagoon watching the moon, waiting for the fireworks to start, with two pints from the Rose & Crown

Bob's Favourite Ride: Tower of Terror
Bob's Favourite Show: Beauty and the Beast
Bob's Favourite Night-time Entertainment Spectacle: Celebrate the Magic
Bob's Favourite Character Meet: Marie
Bob's Favourite Magical Disneymoon Moment: Watching the fireworks at World Showcase.