4th times a charm? Dec 2021 PTR

[disney castle days]

Hi!!!

So it has been a long time since I have been on here, but WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY!!!

I'll explain more in a minute, but first, let me introduce myself and my cast for this PTR!




Hi! I'm Allison and I will be your host for this trip! By the time of this trip I will be 19 years old, and in my 2nd year of college (technically a junior but that's a different story). I have been obsessed with Disney for as long as I can remember, and have even started making Mickey Ears for my friends (as you can see in the picture). I also now have a YouTube channel so I am going to be vlogging this trip, which is something new but I love vlogging so it makes it really exciting for me!

Favorites:
Park: MK
Hotel: BLT
Movie: Lilo and Stitch or Soul
Character: Stitch
Restaurant: Hoop-Dee-Doo
Ride/Show: PhilharMagic (I like to say this makes me an old soul lol)





The other star of this show is my mom! She will never let me say her age, but she is young at heart. She is a teacher (her classroom was Nemo themed last year) and is the reason for my love for Disney! She loved dressing me up as a princess and taking me to Disney and is now my partner in crime. She also was really smart and bought DVC when I was small, and I am forever grateful for all the trips we have been able to take because of this.

Favorites:
Park: MK
Hotel: WL
Movie: Lilo and Stitch
Character: Stitch
Restaurant: The Wave
Ride/Show: it's a small world.

Now that we got introductions out of the way, let's get into the trip!!

So as we all know 2020 was... a year.

Originally, I was going to Germany in March for an exchange trip, but corona hit, and that trip got canceled. With the refund, we booked a trip for the middle of June (this was like the first week in March before we knew much about the pandemic).

Once the schools closed down we decided to move our trip to July. It was my high school graduation trip, and after the cancellation of prom and graduation, my mom WAS NOT letting Disney get ruined for me.

She planned the whole trip including a stay at BLT with a theme park view. The parks were opening 2 days before we were supposed to get there, so we would be going to the parks. She surprised me with the whole trip (I hate surprises but I was SO excited). And then... it got canceled.

My high school decided to have a modified "graduation" with 1/4 of my 750 person graduation class and it was on the second day of our trip. I am so grateful to have had any type of ceremony, but it sure was a bummer to have this trip canceled again.

So then we played around with a trip this December, but I knew I was taking a winter course (yay college ) and my mom started a new job in September so we couldn't swing it.

So finally after ALL of that, we have decided when we are going: December 2021.

This is so far away, in fact, this is the longest gap between trips since I was little, but I am so excited to be able to go again especially it Christmas time AND the 50th.

I have also decided to make this trip a little special for my mom. As I said before, my mom is the reason why I have been able to go to Disney and the reason why I love it so much. Because I am 18 and I will be graduating college in about 2 years, and going into the real world, this might be one of our last girl's trips while I still her little girl (most likely next time I will be able to drink around the world). So, I decided to buy a surprise for her with presents before the trip. She checks my card balance, so my plan is to buy one Disney-themed item each month and then give them to her right before we leave. She has always bought me ears and spirit jerseys every time I wanted one, but she does not have too many of her own. So far I bought and it's a small world shirt, and I am working on a matching pair of mickey ears. My current plan is to have them all shipped to my dorm, so I can hide them in my room so she won't see them although I am a bit worried about her finding them when I move out for the summer however, we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

We have the basics down, we know the dates, the airline, and some restaurants, but not any major details.

So far our plans are as follows:

Leave Dec 14th in the morning (First time leaving in the morning!)

Dec 15th: MK

Dec 16th: ?

Dec 17: ?

Dec 18: ?

Dec 19: ?

Dec 20: ?

Dec 21:
Breakfast: The Wave
Go home.

The Wave is always our last meal because we "wave good-bye" to Disney. We started this tradition about 5 years ago and the staff always finds it hilarious.

That's all we have for now, but follow along to see if this gets canceled again or if we FINALLY make it back home!

 

[kclark9830]

How exciting! I love your idea to buy gifts for your mom. That is so sweet!

We were originally going to take a trip in December too, but then we decided we couldn't wait that long and we switched to June .

Looking forward to what you all plan!!!

 

[disney castle days]

Hey all! Thanks for coming by!

So real quick, I need to introduce some more special guests who may make an appearance later.



First, we have my father. For this trip, he will have recently retired! While we are planning to make this a girls-only trip, he might come down for a few days. He isn't really into Disney but appreciates me and my mom’s love for it and enjoys a good hot tub.


Next is my older brother Joe. He did not get the Disney gene. He doesn’t hate Disney but he thinks it is a waste of money and will not be joining us at all. He is in college and told our parents he doesn’t want to come home for Christmas next year (my mom did NOT like that), but we are planning on having him drive us to the airport and babysit the dog while we are gone.

And lastly is my best friend “MK”. I’ve known her for about 5 years now and we like to call her my big sister since she is two years older than me. I have been trying to convince my mom to let her go to Disney with us for a while now, and she was actually supposed to be going with us when the trip was going to be in July. I am trying to get her added to the trip, but for now, she is my ride home from college (did I mention we have gone to the same school since we were 5 and go to the same college?). She is going to also play a key part in helping me plan surprises for my mom so I imagine she will be mentioned again.

In other news, I have spent a lot of time trying to make plans.

My biggest fear as of right now is my college has not released our semester dates for next year. Usually, finals end the second Saturday of December, giving me a solid 2-day barrier, although the Saturday is for makeups, so it is more like a 3-day barrier. Given that this year we did not have any breaks, I am sort of scared that, that means next semester will be longer with the breaks and that it might interfere with the trip, although if classes are still half online, half in-person like it is this year, I will just pray the Disney wifi doesn’t fail me and take them there .

My mom and I are trying to organize all our thoughts before I go back to college so we are on the same page for everything. Usually, around this point of the planning, I start making my spreadsheets and my trip binder, and then my mom decides about 1 to 2 months later that she wants to help plan, resulting in everything being changed, and I am DETERMINED this year to not let that happen.

If you can’t tell already, I have slight control issues.

Okay, so enough about my issues and onto the trip plans!!!

We have flight cancellation credits so we are flying JetBlue. I hate JetBlue but they always mess up and we get more free trips so it creates a neverending loop of flying them.
We are planning to do either a 7 or 8-day ticket with no park hopping.

We normally wait until after school to fly, but since I am in college and my mom has a bunch of vacation days, we are leaving early. We are both morning people so the plan is the earliest flight (I’m hoping for an 8 am but my mom wants 6 am). We are going to use magical express to get to the hotel to freshen up and get ready.

First day/travel day: Magic Kingdom.

Not sure what we will be doing there, but we have to go. We are planning to get an ADR to Tony’s for dinner since my mom really likes it, but I think I might plan for lunch because my mom usually crashes between 3 and 5, so unless it is a late dinner we aren’t going to make it, and by then we will be really hungry.

2nd day: Epcot

Now Epcot day ALWAYS goes wrong for us. Some highlights include my mom being rushed out in an ambulance (they said it was dehydration but I still doubt that), a giant fight over where the exit was (idk how to explain this one), and my brother almost being struck by lightning (it was probably far away but he still says it was next to him, I was little so idk). This being said, we usually limit our time there because we know something will go wrong no matter how hard we try.

I’m not really sure what we are going to do for breakfast, my mom wants Chef Mickey’s but I want to do 1900 Park Fare.

And then for lunch/dinner, we are going to eat all the festival food!! I’m pretty excited about this because I was never an adventurous eater before college, so I have never had a lot of the festival food.

If FP+ is a thing again, my plan is Frozen and Spaceship Earth, not sure with the third would be.

3rd day: AK

No exciting stories here. My mom always likes to say that she has never seen half of it when we watch Disney vlogs, but we are always rushing to another park for fireworks, so hopefully we see more.

Lunch is going to be Sanaa. I have been begging my mom to go for the bread service for years, and she has finally caved in. Possibly dinner at Yak and Yeti, although since we are having lunch we might stick to QS breakfast and dinner.

Possible FP+: Kilimanjaro Safaris, Na'vi, and FOP

4th day: HS

We still haven’t seen Galaxy’s Edge or Toy Story Land even though they were both open on our last trip, so I am super excited. I am trying to get my mom to watch Star Wars but it is a struggle.

Breakfast: Trattoria al Forno, we planning to go here in 2018 but the ADRs filled :/
Dinner: Hollywood and Vine; we both hate it there, but apparently it is better now and the Christmas character costumes

FP+: Slinky, TSM, and ?

5th day: Break day

We always take a break day mid-trip to catch up on sleep and to look at all the other hotel’s decorations. The last few trips our “break days” have been the result of a tornado, food-poisoning, and of course, my mom getting rushed out in an ambulance. We figured it was better to just plan it in this time.

Only 1 ADR this day, Beaches and Cream. I’m not a big fan, since I think it is pretty expensive even for Disney prices and due to the curse of lactose intolerance I can’t have ice cream, but my mom loves it, so we’ll go for her.

6th day: No sure

I’m thinking of another Epcot day, but I don’t know how much we will test our luck.

ADRs:
Brunch at City Works. The menu looks good and all the reviews I have seen sound positive. Plus, I’m a sucker for cinnamon rolls!!

7th day: MK

Plaza for breakfast, since I missed this one on our last trip. My mom said it was really good, but I was sick and was really upset to miss it.

Hopefully, we could do MVMCP or Hoop-Dee-Doo this day, but who knows if either will be open.

8th day: MK (and leave)

We always take a really late flight out, which usually gets delayed (we once got in at 4 am!), so we do a park in the morning.

We always go to the Wave for breakfast to Wave goodbye to Disney. And then MK until the tragical express comes.

That is all that is planned for right now! Our booking day for our home resort (AKL) is the 14th so we are almost there! We also need to decide on tickets and figure out the whole park reservations process (but hopefully that leaves by Dec).

I'll update you guys when we book the hotel!

 

[Bama Mom]

Surprising your mom with a gift is a super cute idea. I'm sure she is going to love it!.

My daughter and I are going to start working on our mickey/minnie ears for our upcoming March trip on Saturday. We have 6 going in our group and it's a girls only trip. Can't wait to follow along with your plans.

 

[disney castle days]

334 days to go!!

Today was our 11 month day, so we booked our room!

We got a 1 BDR Savannah view at AKL Kidani, although we will probably change this once we hit our 7-month mark. We did struggle with some confusion from our DVC points since they are messed up from our last trip, but that should all be situated by the weekend.

I haven't really changed many of the plans at this point, since I have been getting ready to move back to school in 2 weeks. We are definitely planning not to do park hopper this year, which saddens my MK loving heart, but after watching lots of YouTube videos we figured they are probably not worth it at this point.

I have been doing a decent amount of stuff for the surprise, though. My mom is now on the boards so I have to be a little more careful, but I already told her she can't look at this thread so hopefully, she listens.

The IASW shirt came in about 2 weeks ago and is so cute! I absolutely love it, and it is hidden in my suitcase right now so she won't see it. I ordered a shirt from the Lost Bros that says "Let it Snoap" since it was on sale I am sure she is going to love it, because we love joking about snoap. I also shopped Disney's holiday sale and purchased the Christmas Spirit Jersey mask and the Christmas Magic band. The mask was $5 and the Magic Band was I believe $8. We don't normally purchase any of the special Magic Bands, but with them getting rid of the complimentary ones, I think this was a good purchase. I also have been vlogging receiving all the items and am going to make a big video to post with my mom's reaction in December.

My mom also bought 2 packs of the Disney Christmas masks. While we are hoping we do not need masks, come December, but realistically we probably will, and she is high risk and a teacher so we would rather be safe than sorry.

That's all for this update. Not sure when the next will be.

Have a great day!!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more. How sweet of you to have surprises for your mom .

 

[disney castle days]

294 days!!!

I was going to start this off by saying not much has happened, but I feel like that is only half the truth.

We bought our plane tickets the other day!!

We leave for Florida on the 14th. The flight is at 9:30 am which is not too bad. I was trying to convince my mom to book the 7 am flight but she did not want to have to leave the house before 5 am, and I don't blame her.

Our flight home is on the 21st around 6:30 pm so we will have a decent amount of time in the park on the last day. We know that the flight will probably be delayed anyway because it is always delayed, but my mom has to work the next morning so she was trying to think wishfully and get us home before midnight.

We are probably purchasing our tickets in the upcoming week. We are still debating whether or not to do park hopper or not, but we are switching to 6-day tickets, and not going to the park on the weekend. This is primarily to save money, but it is also to avoid crowds since they seem to be much worse on weekends.

On the shopping front, I have spent some money... but I actually have not bought too much. Since I bought 3 things in January I decided to not buy any presents in February. I did however buy myself some ears because I have an obsession...

They are Frozen 2 ears, and they were delivered to my house instead of my dorm so I have not seen them yet and I do not have a picture but the stock photo was so so pretty.

And that's pretty much it right now. I have been drowning in school work so I do not have much time to plan right now, but hopefully, my mom has been planning a little bit back at home.

 

[disney castle days]

275 days!

We bought our park tickets this morning AND booked our park reservations today!

So our days are as following

Day 1: MK
Day 2: Epcot
Day 3: HS
Day 4: HS
Day 5: Break
Day 6: Break
Day 7: MK
Day 8: MK

So one of our HS days is going to be AK and we also got park hoppers, but I wanted to book at least 2 days so we have 2 chances of getting on RotR. I am a pretty big star wars fan, so I am so excited to *hopefully ride it!!

I also did a little more shopping...



I bought these Olaf ears for my mom so we can have a Frozen-themed say. I am still trying to find a shirt to go with them, but nothing has caught my interest yet.

I have also been looking for some ears for me because I finally have a job so I have some spending money! I am super stingy when it comes to spending money though (you would probably never believe it based on the number of ears I own), so I have been adding a lot to my cart and then deciding I do not need them, which I guess is to my benefit.

That's all for now!!

 

[vassar36]

exciting!!! Following along

 

[disney castle days]

233 days!!!

So I came home for the weekend, which means I finally got to see all of the ears I bought!!!!!!!!

I also had to buy a dress for my team banquet, so I may or may not have convinced my mom to buy some more outfits for Disney....

!!!!! SPOILER FOR WANDAVISION AHEAD!!!!

So the first pair of ears I bought were some Frozen 2 ones!! Bruni is me and my best friend's favorite character so I decided to find ones with him on it!

 

[disney castle days]

So the last update decided to cut off half of the text, but basically I also got an Olaf long-sleeve shirt to match the ears, two Mickey t-shirts, and a stitch sweatshirt from Kohls. And I also got super cute Agatha ears from Wandavision!

I'll have another update in 2 weeks!