10 Nights, 9 Days, 2 Birthdays and 1 Magical May 2014 Vacation! **Complete 6-10**

[anniebabymu]

Following along. I just found your PTR. Love all of the matching shirts on your girls. Super Cute!

Welcome!! Happy to have you here!

And thanks so much! I just finished making 3 shirts for my youngest! Can't wait to make them for my oldest too... and if course share them with you all! They're so cute!

 

[AprilRenee]

Woohoo!!!
Ok so I'm still figuring out the whole FP+ strategy (I have some time ) but I was thinking we'd hit rope drop most mornings (sleep in on AK day cause we don't care too much and it's dead in Jan anyway) but then we'd schedule our fastpasses for early-late afternoon when the parks get busier. I see you did that on a lot of days but then some days you have 9 and 10am slots. What prompted you to make those early choices? (Besides Anna and Elsa. That one makes sense to do early cause I'm sure the FP line will back up too)

 

[anniebabymu]

Woohoo!!!
Ok so I'm still figuring out the whole FP+ strategy (I have some time ) but I was thinking we'd hit rope drop most mornings (sleep in on AK day cause we don't care too much and it's dead in Jan anyway) but then we'd schedule our fastpasses for early-late afternoon when the parks get busier. I see you did that on a lot of days but then some days you have 9 and 10am slots. What prompted you to make those early choices? (Besides Anna and Elsa. That one makes sense to do early cause I'm sure the FP line will back up too)

On Thursday my MIL AND FIL will be heading to Epcot around 1, so they wanted to do FP+ with us. Then Friday it's the opposite, Derek and I will be heading to Epcot for the evening. Neither of us will be using FP+ there because we'll be focusing mainly on the World Showcase... and drinking margaritas! Ha ha! So the only place to do FP+ was really MK in the morning. I'm sure we won't need some of those, so we'll just swap it out for a different one! Make sense??

 

[anniebabymu]

Woohoo!!!
Ok so I'm still figuring out the whole FP+ strategy (I have some time ) but I was thinking we'd hit rope drop most mornings (sleep in on AK day cause we don't care too much and it's dead in Jan anyway) but then we'd schedule our fastpasses for early-late afternoon when the parks get busier. I see you did that on a lot of days but then some days you have 9 and 10am slots. What prompted you to make those early choices? (Besides Anna and Elsa. That one makes sense to do early cause I'm sure the FP line will back up too)

Oh and like our AK day, we'll probably only be there until like 2 and wanted to hit up shows in the afternoon, so that's why those are earlier.

 

[blueangel2]

i just watched all 3 videos and it makes me wish that I had decided to surprise my dd. Maybe next time.

 

[anniebabymu]

i just watched all 3 videos and it makes me wish that I had decided to surprise my dd. Maybe next time.

Thanks for watching them! It was so much fun! You should surprise her some day! Although, after doing that I have no idea how to pull a surprise off for the next time. Our next trip will be next year when my in laws want to take my nephew (who will be 4 when we go) for the first time. So I'm thinking about saying that we have to take them all to the airport and then saying, " Surprise! We're going too!" Who knows!

 

[AprilRenee]

On Thursday my MIL AND FIL will be heading to Epcot around 1, so they wanted to do FP+ with us. Then Friday it's the opposite, Derek and I will be heading to Epcot for the evening. Neither of us will be using FP+ there because we'll be focusing mainly on the World Showcase... and drinking margaritas! Ha ha! So the only place to do FP+ was really MK in the morning. I'm sure we won't need some of those, so we'll just swap it out for a different one! Make sense??

Gotcha! Yep! Makes sense figured you had a reason. Lol

 

[anniebabymu]

Gotcha! Yep! Makes sense figured you had a reason. Lol

I need to post updated park plans since thy got a little screwed up use to the 24 hour party! Then it ill really all make sense! Ha ha!

 

[anniebabymu]

In order to get our FP+ selections all figured out, I made a lovely little spreadsheet to plot out all of our days to figure out what times/attractions we were going to shoot for. So here are our our *new'ish* plans including our FP+ selections! *Super Text Heavy*

Day "Before" 1: Wednesday, May 21st
- 7:30am: Get off of work, come home and finish up packing and all other "last minute" stuff. I'm thinking I'm not getting to sleep today, but maybe I'll be exhausted enough that night to actually sleep!

- 2:45: Pick Addie up from her last day of school!!

- Then we'll finish up loading the car and we will wait for daddy to get home from work, grab dinner and then head down to my in-laws house where we will spend the night!

Day 1: Thursday, May 22nd
- Around 4:15am: Pack everyone up and head to the airport!

- 6:10am: Flight leaves

- 9:25am: Flight lands in ORLANDO!!!

- 11:00am: Check into Pop Century

- 11:00-3:00: Hoping our rooms are ready, we'll drop our bags off, grab some lunch at Pop or AoA, then rest/explore the resort (because really, I'm sure we'll be too excited to nap!)

- 3:00: Hop on bus to Epcot

- 3:00-4:00: FP+ Mission Space

- 4:00-5:00: FP+ The Seas with Nemo and Friends (Me, MIL and girls)

- 4:05-5:05: FP+ Mission Space (DH and FIL)

- Then I'm sure the boys will meet us over at The Seas Exhibits and we'll head to The Land.

- 5:05-6:05: FP+ Soarin' (hoping to ride it towards the beginning of our time!)

- After Soarin' we'll head into the World Showcase and head back towards Japan. Hoping we'll have time for us to all do Pick-a-Pearl!

- 6:35: Check in at Akershus for our 6:50 ADR.

- After dinner: Leave Epcot, head back to Pop and call it an early night.

Continued in Next Post​

 

[anniebabymu]

Day 2: Friday, May 23rd
- 5:00am: Meet at bus for Magic Kingdom

- 6:00am: Magic Kingdom opens for the "Rock Your Disney Side 24 Hour Event"

- 6:00-10:45: Tackle the Park by "Lands"

- Start with Rapunzel Meet and Greet (if open), then Peter Pan.

- Explore Fantasyland and New Fantasyland attractions:
*7 Dwarfs Mine Train
*The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
*Journey of the Little Mermaid
*Ariel's Grotto (if open)
*Gaston's Tavern (if open... I'm going to need a LeFou's Brew!)
*Pete's Silly Side Show and meet Minnie & Daisy, Goofy & Pluto
*The Barnstormer
*Dumbo
*Mad Tea Party
- Explore Tomorrowland attractions:
*Space Mountain (if the wait time isn't too crazy)
*Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
*Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor
- Depending on the time:
*Meet Merida or Fairy God Mother??

*Hopefully we'll be able to fit most of this in!*

- 10:45am: Check into the BBB for Addison's 11:00 appointment

- While my MIL and I are with Addie for her appointment, DH and FIL will have Harper and do... the Carousel, Philharmagic and It's a Small World.

- 12:00-12:30'ish: Lunch at Pecos Bill??

- 12:15-1:15: FP+ Splash Mountain, use Rider Swap since Harper can't ride.

- 1:30'ish: Leave MK for rest time... or stay for Festival of Fantasy Parade??

- If we stay for Parade: We can do something more "relaxing" like the Riverboat or Tom Sawyer Island.

- If we go back to Pop... 3:30: Meet at bus to go back to MK

- 4:05-5:05: FP+ Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, use Rider Swap??

- 5:15-6:15: FP+ Haunted Mansion

- Depending on time: It's a Small World, Philharmagic??

- 6:00: Get on Monorail to Grand Floridian

- 7:00: Dinner at 1900 Park Fare

- After Dinner: Take Monorail to MK, get on bus and go back to Pop.

- When we get back to Pop: Meet up with our friends for a quick "Hi!" and head to bed!

Day 3: Saturday, May 24th
- 7:15am: Meet at bus for MK (Sean and Chelsea will have to stop by Guest Services and upgrade their park tickets to Annual Passes in order to get into the park since they have a Black Out Date today for MK on their Florida Resident Tickets)

- 9:00 MK Opens

- Peter Pan's Flight
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid
- Dumbo
- The Barnstormer

- 10:20-11:20: FP+ Enchanted Tales with Belle

- 11:20-12:20: FP+ Splash Mountain (filler for 7DMT)

- Lunch at Cosmic Rays??

- It's a Small World and Carousel (depending on time)

- 1:00-1:30: Leave MK for rest

- 4:00: Meet at bus to go back to MK

- 4:35-5:35: FP+ Space Mountain

- Check out wait times or do Pete's Silly Side Show??

- 6:20: Check into Be Our Guest early to try to get our tables together since we have two separate ADR's (both for 6:45)

- Check out wait times/depending on time, go grab a spot on Main Street for 9:00 Main Street Electrical Parade.

- 10:00: Wishes

- Leave with the masses and head back to Pop.

Continued in Next Post​

 

[anniebabymu]

Day 4: Sunday, May 25th
7:45: Meet at bus for Epcot

9:00: Epcot Opens

- Test Track with Rider Swap

9:00-10:00: FP+ Soarin' with Rider Swap

- Epcot Character Spot
- Journey Into Imagination with Figment

11:00: World Showcase Opens

- Maelstrom
- Gran Fiesta Tour

11:30'ish: Lunch at La Cantina de San Angel??

- After lunch: Tour the World Showcase starting in Mexico

1:30: Leave Epcot for Rest time

4:00: Meet at bus to head back to Epcot

4:30-5:30: FP+ The Seas with Nemo and Friends

-After Nemo: do Turtle Talk with Crush and looks at the aquariums until 5:30 or so.

5:30-6:30: FP+ Living with the Land

6:30: Dinner at The Garden Grill

- After Dinner: Tour the World Showcase starting in Canada

9:00: Illuminations

Day 5: Monday, May 26th
- Before 8:45: Say Good-Bye to our friends or maybe they can hang out and either meet us at DTD or back at Pop to swim!

8:45: Meet at bus for MK

10:15: 'Ohana Best Friends Breakfast

- After Breakfast: Hop on Monorail to MK and either...
1. *Take bus to POR and show MIL and FIL where we stayed our last trip.
* Take boat to DTD and spend afternoon there.
* Early Counter Serve dinner at DTD... Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express.
* Come back to Pop and swim, laundry, movie by the pool?

or

2. *Take bus to Pop.
* Swim, laundry, find way over to mini-golf?
* Bus to DTD.
* Counter Serve dinner at DTD... Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express.
* Explore DTD.
* Bus back to Pop, movie night by pool?

Continued in Next Post​

 

[anniebabymu]

Day 6: Tuesday, May 27th
6:45: Meet at bus for Animal Kingdom

8:00: Animal Kingdom opens

- Kilimanjaro Safari
- Maharajah Jungle Trek (if time)

9:05-10:05: FP+ Expedition Everest

10:05-11:05: FP+ Dinosaur

- During these 2 FP+: Harper can do The Boneyard, Tricera-Top Spin, meet Tigger and Winnie the Pooh or other characters near by.

- 10:40'ish: Finding Nemo the Musical

- 12:00: Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ?

- 12:30-1:30: Discovery Island Trails, Characters or It's Tough to be a Bug

- 1:30-2:30: FP+ Kali River Rapids

2:30: Leave AK

5:30: Meet at bus for MK, then take boat to Wilderness Lodge

6:50: Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe

-After dinner: Take boat back to MK, stay there or catch bus back to Pop.

Day 7: Wednesday, May 28th
6:45: Meet at bus for Hollywood Studios

8:00: Hollywood Studios opens for AM EMH

- DH, MIL, FIL, Addison?? head to Star Tours
- Me, Addison?? and Harper head to TSMM
- After Star Tours: DH, FIL head to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster
- MIL will meet me and girls to meet Buzz and Woody (if they're out). If they're not out, then we'll hang out and wait to meet them at 9 or explore and come back to Pixar Place to meet them at 9:00.

9:25: Disney Jr. Live on Stage for the 9:40 show.

10:00-11:00: FP+ for Toy Story Midway Mania

- The Great Movie Ride
- Muppet Vision

11:30'ish: Lunch at Pizza Planet?

12:50-1:00: FP+ Voyage of the Little Mermaid

- After L.M.: Leave HS for rest time

3:45: Meet at bus to go back to HS

4:30-5:30: FP+ Tower of Terror

5:15: Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage for the 5:30 show.

6:20: Check in for 6:30 ADR at 50's Prime Time

9:00: Fantasmic or back to Pop??

Continued in Next Post​

 

[anniebabymu]

Day 8: Thursday, May 29th
6:45: Meet at bus for MK

8:00: MK opens for AM EMH

- AM EMH attractions: New Fantasyland or Tomorrowland

9:30-10:30: FP+ Jungle Cruise (may not need it and can book something later)

- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Magic Carpets of Aladdin
- Meet Aladdin and Jasmine
- Meet Tink

11:10-12:10: FP+ Splash Mountain

- Lunch somewhere??

12:30-1:30: FP+ Rapunzel/Cinderella (if we meet them on the 23rd, we will reschedule this FP+)

- MIL and FIL leave to go to Epcot for "Date Day"

- Check wait times for rides and stay for Festival of Fantasy Parade.

3:00: Festival of Fantasy Parade

- Leave for rest/swim after parade or stay at MK??

6:40: Meet at the Poly for 7:10 dinner at 'Ohana.

- After dinner: MK or back to Pop?

*** Or if want more time elsewhere, we may skip AM EMH and do whatever park we like. We'll reschedule FP+ last minute then!

Day 9: Friday, May 30th
7:45: Meet at bus for MK

9:00: MK Opens

9:00-10:00: FP+ Anna and Elsa Meet and Greet

10:05-11:05: FP+ Peter Pan

- Check wait times for rides

11:05-12:05: FP+ Tomorrowland Speedway (filler for 7DMT)

- Lunch somewhere?
- Check wait times for rides

1:30: Leave MK for rest time.

5:30: Meet at buses
- MIL, FIL, Girls to MK, then on Monorail for 7:00 ADR at Chef Mickey's
- Me and DH to Epcot for 7:00 ADR at Via Napoli (we may leave sooner, we'll see!)

- DH and I will be at Epcot for the evening and staying for PM EMH.

- MIL, FIL and girls... back to MK? or Pop??

Continued in Next Post​

 

[anniebabymu]

Day 10: Saturday, May 31st
8:00'ish: Meet at bus for Hollywood Studios

9:35: Breakfast ADR at Hollywood and Vine

- After Breakfast: Leave HS and board boat to Epcot.

11:00-3:00?: Tour the World Showcase and "Snack Around the World" for lunch.

3:30: Be at MK for the evening

3:30-4:30: FP+ Splash Mountain

4:30-5:30: FP+ Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (keep or filler for 7DMT?)

- Eat CS dinner somewhere

- Check wait times for rides

7:00-8:00: FP+ for Space Mountain

8:30: Head over to Tomorrowland Terrace to check-in for the Dessert Party.

- After party, rides or back to Pop

Departure Day, June 1st
- Pack up

10:40: Magical Express Pick-up

1:40: Flight leaves


** There you have it! Looks like we'll be having some early mornings... but who am I kidding! We can't sleep in at Disney anyways!!

Continued in Next Post​

 

[AprilRenee]

Busy busy busy! But it makes me so excited!! However those are some SERIOUSLY early mornings!!! Lol we do ripe drop but we are not early riders so morning emh are a no-go here.
But it sounds super fun!
So is your schedule made with the touring plans customs plan maker? Or did you do it yourself? Can't remember if you were the one considering using that or not.

 

[melnbil]

Those plans sound awesome!! I ended up getting my fast passes last night! Maybe we will see you there!

 

[anniebabymu]

Busy busy busy! But it makes me so excited!! However those are some SERIOUSLY early mornings!!! Lol we do ripe drop but we are not early riders so morning emh are a no-go here.
But it sounds super fun!
So is your schedule made with the touring plans customs plan maker? Or did you do it yourself? Can't remember if you were the one considering using that or not.

Oh yes... MANY early mornings! That's why I made sure to put a few hours in there where we can go back and chill out! But most nights I think we'll be heading back to Pop instead of going back into a park, so hopefully we'll be able to get to bed at a decent hour! We'll see how it all works out!

I did use Touring Plans for all but the last 3 days, mostly for the parks that we're only doing one park. Although, I didn't use it for Magic Kingdom on the 23rd because I'm not sure how much I believed them! That's the 24 hour party and they said at like 7'something in the morning Journey of the Little Mermaid was going to have a 40 minute wait... and I'm thinking probably not! So I just decided to tackle it by "Lands", hitting the big stuff first and seeing how much we can get done.

First I plugged in all the rides we'd like to do, in an order I thought was doable (without adding any Fast Passes) and then clicked Evaluate. Then I looked to see what attractions they said would have the longest wait and plugged in a Fast Pass time for those and hit evaluate again. Then I played around with it, taking out attractions or moving them around and came up with a good plan of attack! I'm not going to live and die by the times they say we'll be doing things, but will follow the "order" I put them in on it. I'll probably check in on it every once in awhile just to see if we're on track or not. Hopefully it doesn't steer me in the wrong direction!

 

[anniebabymu]

Those plans sound awesome!! I ended up getting my fast passes last night! Maybe we will see you there!

Yay!!! So exciting!! I hope you were able to get everything you wanted!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

updated plans! so exciting! we can't do those early mornings/rope drops because as excited as we are, we can't get our butts out of bed on time! let's blame it on DH since he's not here to defend himself.... but it all looks really good! I'm so excited for you all! you're gonna have so much fun!!

 

[AprilRenee]

Oh yes... MANY early mornings! That's why I made sure to put a few hours in there where we can go back and chill out! But most nights I think we'll be heading back to Pop instead of going back into a park, so hopefully we'll be able to get to bed at a decent hour! We'll see how it all works out!

First I plugged in all the rides we'd like to do, in an order I thought was doable (without adding any Fast Passes) and then clicked Evaluate. Then I looked to see what attractions they said would have the longest wait and plugged in a Fast Pass time for those and hit evaluate again. Then I played around with it, taking out attractions or moving them around and came up with a good plan of attack! I'm not going to live and die by the times they say we'll be doing things, but will follow the "order" I put them in on it. I'll probably check in on it every once in awhile just to see if we're on track or not. Hopefully it doesn't steer me in the wrong direction!

Cool cool! Sorry for so many questions! Just trying to kinda figure out how our touring may change with FP+.
Yeah I did notice that you were going back after dinner most nights. That'll probably help a lot.
We just are all sleepers! I can't image being AWAKE at 6:45, much less already at the bus stop!! haha Even Caden sleeps til 8 or 9 every morning. So I'm just hoping we can manage the semi-early mornings and make it to normal rope drop. Especially since FL is 1 hr later...so 8am in FL is 7am in our STL bodies. I've actually been a little nervous about Caden's crabbiness level cause he's not a happy child when he's tired!! I'm planning to do breaks at the hotel but I'm also KINDA hoping he'll just nap in his stroller. He's done it before so I'm pretty hopeful on that one. lol

I'm also planning to have a sleep in day in the middle of our trip. Probably our AK day. With FP+ we can do the things we want at AK without rope drop and that is never a full day park for us anyway. So I think that will be our lazy day. We might even show up to the park at 11 or 12! I know...it's blasphemy!

I did use Touring Plans for all but the last 3 days, mostly for the parks that we're only doing one park. Although, I didn't use it for Magic Kingdom on the 23rd because I'm not sure how much I believed them! That's the 24 hour party and they said at like 7'something in the morning Journey of the Little Mermaid was going to have a 40 minute wait... and I'm thinking probably not! So I just decided to tackle it by "Lands", hitting the big stuff first and seeing how much we can get done.

Have you found any trip reports from the Monster's Inc 24 hr party last year? I read one a while back...let me see if it's still in my SUB folder. He had a lot of info about crowd levels. I remember it was pretty crazy crowded cause they got separated but I think that was in the evening around firework or parade time. I'll see if I can link it in for you!
Found it: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3120355&highlight=monster+s+inc+24+hour and nope! Looks like morning was NO crowds like normal! Should be a great time!