A DIS Love Story A Year In The Making (COMPLETE!)

[adamreisinger]

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you, without a trip report to step to...

Actually, with apologies to Eric B. & Rakim, it hasn't actually been a long time. My last WDW trip ended a little more than three weeks ago, but in planning terms, that means I'm long past due for the trip process to begin again.

Fortunately, I started planning my "next" trip even before my last trip had begun, and -- barring another unexpected weekend jaunt to WDW or DL -- it's time to get focused on what should be a magical week in September and October.

Trip Details​

Who: Me, My Girlfriend, and a Porg that I'm probably going to sneak into too many pictures
What: An anniversary celebration at WDW
When: Sept. 26-Oct. 3
Where: Coronado Springs Resort
Why: Because until we move to Orlando, we need to visit as often as possible
How: Money can be exchanged for goods and services

As always, so you don't have to dig through my past trip reports, I'll cover the re-introductions here.

This is me, the Guy With The Princess Tattoo (still just the one forearm, though I've started at least thinking about adding the rest of the princesses on one of my legs).

If I didn't love Jasmine's reaction in this picture so much, I'd probably stop using it, because I've dropped about 40 pounds since it was taken, as you can kind of see in this picture of me and my girlfriend -- who hasn't killed me yet for posting pictures of us in these threads and somehow continues to put up with me on a daily basis.

I'm definitely going to make her take a ton of PhotoPass photos on this trip, though I promise I'll only share the best ones here (probably all the ones with the Porg).

This trip is going to be about experiencing a lot of new things for us -- as I'll detail as this trip report goes along -- but we'll also try to hit as many of our favorites as possible. Mine remain unchanged from my last trip report, but I'll re-post them here for posterity:

Favorite park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Favorite non-ride attraction: Voyage of The Little Mermaid
Favorite nighttime show: Happily Ever After (I mean, really, it's still Wishes, but HEA is a worthy successor)
Favorite character: Rapunzel
Favorite non-Princess character: Stitch
Favorite resort: Polynesian (but I also want to live in the Royal Rooms at Port Orleans - Riverside)
Favorite TSR: California Grill (yay for brunch!!!)
Favorite QSR: Sunshine Seasons (fancy cupcakes FTW)
Favorite moment of mine at WDW: The one in my avatar picture, as detailed here
Favorite holiday to be at WDW: New Year's Eve

So join along as I take my fourth of what will likely be at least six trips to WDW in 2018.

Once Upon a Time (Pre-Trip Entries)
1. One Year Later...
2. 100 Days To Go...
3. A Long Overdue Downer of an Update...
4. Adam's Not So Scary Halloween Costume...
5. FastPass Day!
6. One Year Later... Again...
7. I'm Going To Disneyland!
8. When You Hit Planning Overload...
9. Adding an Extra Enchanting Extra
10. (Less Than) Two Weeks To Go...
11. Disneyland Detour, Day 1
12. A First Time for Everything

Happily Ever After (Trip Entries)
13. Day 1 - Moonlight Magic!
14. Day 2 - Keys, Drinks and Frozen Fun!
15. Day 3 - Epcot, Disney Springs and an Unplanned Interruption
16. Day 4 - Finally, Flight of Passage!
17. Day 5 - Meet Your Halloween Party Princess!
18. Day 6 - Lunch with an Imagineer, Night with Pandora
19. Day 7 - Plaza Views and Epcot Booze
20. Day 8 - Goodbye for now (meaning... for a week or so)​

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter 1 - One Year Later...​

First, as always with my trip report entries, let's do a weight check.

I was, well, let's just say "less than good" on my last Disney Trip, and that spilled over into the weeks following my return. As of last Monday, I was back up to 355, which is the wrong direction from where I need to be if I'm ever going to fit on Flight of Passage. But after getting serious about watching what I eat again (I'm doing no carbs 6 days a week, and only giving myself a carb allowance on the 7th so my girlfriend and I can induldge in bottomless mimosas at brunch), I was back down to 347 as of this morning. My goal is to lose about 2 pounds per week from now until my trip date, which would put me at 317, since, oh, that's right, as of today we're exactly 15 weeks away from our arrival day!

Now, you might be saying to yourself, "gee, 15 weeks out seems like a weird time to start a trip report," and you're basically right (though, honestly, you might want to stop talking to yourself). It's well beyond the "early" planning stages (resort reservation, ADRs), but not close to the secondary planning stages (FastPass+ day, final daily itinerary, remaking all our ADRs for the 900th time). But there's a very specific reason I chose this day to start this trip report.

You see, my fellow DISboard friends, today marks exactly one year to the day since I "met" my girlfriend.

I put "met" in quotation marks, because we didn't actually meet in person on June 13, 2017, but our first interaction of any kind came on that day, right here on this board. To be specific, right here.

If you go back to that thread, you'll see that we went back and forth exchanging replies a few more times. Then on July 1, 2017 -- our second anniversary day -- she reached out to me via the PM system on here and we exchanged a LOT more replies, none of which I'll screenshot and share here.

We both ended up having separate trips to Disneyland that month, but on August 1, 2017 -- our THIRD anniversary day -- we met in person for the first time and things blossomed from there. Weirdly, neither of us was seeking out a relationship at the time when we came together. In fact, I'd fully accepted my fate to live out the rest of my life alone, continue going to WDW alone, retire alone, die alone, and eventually have my corpse eaten by my cats alone (OK, maybe I hadn't FULLY accepted that last one).

But I couldn't be more grateful that she came into my life when she did, and I couldn't be more excited to share another WDW journey with her -- our third trip together already. We keep joking that eventually we'll have to go somewhere other than WDW on a vacation, and whenever one of us says that, the other one quickly responds with "So Disneyland then?" It's one of the many reasons we work so well together.

So while it falls around 2-3 months after our various anniversaries, this will essentially be our "anniversary" trip. Neither of us is particularly keen on being at WDW in July or August for our actual anniversaries, given what the weather is like in Florida at that time. Late September isn't going to be MUCH better, but even the slight let-up in the oppressive heat and humidity at night will make it tolerable. Plus, as long as we're together, any trip anywhere would be enjoyable.

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter 2 - 100 Days To Go...
​

Isn't this the most glorious sight (well, aside from "180 days to go" or "60 days to go" or "1 day to go" or... well... you get the point)?

​

As I mentioned in my introductory post, most of our planning is done at this point, so since I started this trip report mid-stream (at least in terms of the planning process), let's get everyone all caught up to speed on our current plan:

Sept. 25 - Day 0
We're going to take a later flight into Orlando, then stay with my parents in The Villages for the night. They spent some time with us at Animal Kingdom in February, but they really want my girlfriend to see their house and area, and this way we won't be traveling/pushing things too much on our arrival day.

Sept. 26 - Day 1
Our current plan is to spend the morning with my parents, then at some point in the early/mid-afternoon drive to WDW and spend some time at Magic Kingdom, before heading over to Hollywood Studios for the DVC Moonlight Magic event (which we can't actually book until Aug. 30). If for some reason we couldn't get into the DVC event, we'd probably flip that plan, and do the early/mid-afternoon at DHS, followed by a night at MK. And as of now we have no ADRs for this day, since we'll be eating breakfast with my parents, then getting plenty of food at the Moonlight Magic event.

Sept. 27 - Day 2
Right now we have reservations booked for the 10:00 a.m. Keys to the Kingdom tour, but sometime between now and then we might move that up to an earlier time slot, since we've heard that starting the tour before the park opens is the best way to go. If we do keep the 10:00 a.m. tour, then that should wrap up right around 3, at which point we'll head over to Epcot, where we have a 4:30 reservation for the Mix It, Make It, Celebrate It! Food & Wine event. This is one of those "we've never done it before" events that we really wanted to try. There were a couple other special Food & Wine events we were considering, but weirdly it appears the weekend that we'll be at WDW is the weekend where most of those events aren't happening (like Brunch with the Chef or Party for the Senses). After that, we'll probably hit up some Food & Wine booths (more wine than food tbh) before heading over to Disney Springs for dinner at Maria & Enzo's. After dinner, we're planning on doing a mini-DS bar hop at some of the newer places, continuing the theme of "stuff we haven't done before" -- which is a big part of this trip, since we're trying to keep things fresh after going to WDW so frequently in the past couple years (and even more frequently this year, as this will already be our third trip as a couple).

Sept. 28 - Day 3
Assuming we're not completely hung over from all the "wine" we'll be having the day before (note: mostly vodka and tequila), we'll probably have breakfast somewhere in the Yacht Club/Beach Club/Boardwalk area, then head into World Showcase for more "wine". Right now we have a 10:15 a.m. reservation at Ale & Compass, but that's only the pick because it's on the current 40% castmember list, which is only good through June 30. Once the new list posts for July 1 and beyond, we'll see if we're keeping Ale & Compass, or switching to something else. Then the plan is to spend most of the day at Epcot, though I have told my girlfriend that I want to take a monorail detour over to MK at some point during the day, if only because I need to take pictures of Cinderella's Castle every day -- and also because by that point we'll probably need a couple hours at a park that doesn't have easy access to alcohol. But we definitely plan to be at Epcot for Illuminations, and might even do the Frozen dessert party if they end up releasing September dates for it.

Sept. 29 - Day 4
This is basically our "no park" day -- except for the brief time when we'll be at Magic Kingdom for Happily Ever After. It's the only day where we have no morning plans at all, and our current "plan" (using that term super loosely) is to start the day with a round of mini golf, followed by a visit to Trader Sam's, which may or may not turn into a monorail resort bar hop. From there we'll do the fireworks -- which we might even just watch from the Trader Sam's deck or the observation deck at the Contemporary depending on our mood -- then it'll be back over to Disney Springs for a late food truck/bar hop night (and probably some shopping, because I'm literally incapable of not buying pins and, my new vice, phone cases).

Sept. 30 - Day 5
Our day starts with something we've done before, but are both incredibly excited about doing again, the California Grill brunch. Yes, it's expensive, but the value you get for your money is well worth it. Then, after we sleep off our food/mimosa coma, we'll get costumed up and do MNSSHP on Sunday night. I'm still debating a few costume options, though the more I think about it, the more I lean to just doing something simple, since it'll probably still be really hot in late September, and the last thing I want to be doing is sweating under layers and layers of costume.

Oct. 1 - Day 6
This is another day where we're probably going to get a later start, with our day at the parks not beginning until our Dining With an Imagineer lunch at HBD at Noon. The only thing that might change that is if we don't do the DVC Moonlight Magic event, in which case we'll probably spend more time at Hollywood Studios that morning before lunch. Either way, we'll probably spend a little time there after lunch before heading over to Animal Kingdom. This is the day I'm targeting for our Flight of Passage FastPass+ selection, with the hope that I can drop some more weight and fit on the ride by the time we get down there. Also, despite having been to the parks four times since it opened, I still have not seen Pandora at night, so I want to make sure we do that as well -- even if "night" in September means the 20 minutes between the sun going down and the park closing. And right now our plan is to call it an early night after Animal Kingdom, but, of course, that could always change when park hours do.

Oct. 2 - Day 7
That said, one of the reasons we want to call it an early night on Oct. 1 is that we want to do all four parks in one day on Oct. 2. The day will start at Magic Kingdom, where we currently have a PPO breakfast at Be Our Guest. We'll hang out at MK until around Noon, then head over to DHS, where we have a lunch reservation at '50s Prime Time Cafe, one of my girlfriend's favorite spots on site. After that, we'll do a late afternoon/early evening at AK, before finishing the night with EMH at Epcot from 9-11. Transportation-wise, it's probably not the best plan (it'd make more sense to go from MK to Epcot to DHS to AK), but we'll have a car with us, and we can always use buses or even Minnie Vans if we need to/feel like it. Still, it really makes me miss express transportation. That was great while it lasted.

Oct. 3 - Day 8
This is our departure day, and we'll be taking a late flight back home, so we'll have plenty of time to do whatever we feel like on the last day -- which I'm certain will include some shopping. But we're keeping it reservation-free just to make sure we have maximum flexibility.

So that's the plan for now, though with 99 days left to make changes, I'm sure we'll come up with plenty of other things we need to do. And we'd love to hear what you think should be on our to-do list, even if it's something we've done before.

 

[adamreisinger]

Wednesday Weight Watch - Week 1
​

A week ago when I started this trip report, I weighed in at 347 pounds — well, 347.6 to be accurate, which I should’ve rounded up to 348, but I just cut off the decimal instead. My goal was to lose two pounds per week leading up to my arrival at Disney World, which would put me at 317.6 on Sept. 26.

This morning, at the one-week mark, I weighed in at 341.6 pounds, which is a major milestone for me. It’s exactly 100 pounds below my highest recorded weight from last summer, and considering I didn’t really get serious about losing weight until November, it means I’ve lost 100 pounds in about 8 months. Now I just have to do that again, then half of that again, and I’ll be at a somewhat healthy weight. But for now I’m not worried about that, I’m just focusing on short-term success.

Looking at the short term, I dropped six pounds last week. Now, I don’t expect that pace to continue for the next 14 weeks (if it did, I’d be at 257 for my trip), but it’s nice to have a good week at th start, knowing there will probably be some bad weeks and plateau points in the future. As it stands now, I have a good chance of heading into July under 340, which would put me close to the weight I was when I went to Disneyland for my birthday in 2016, and put me close to a weight where I think I’d fit on Flight of Passage.

I’m hoping by posting weekly check-ins in this thread, those of you reading and following will help keep me on track for September.

 

[princessnikitaa]

So excited to follow along with this! I am still waiting for my Fastpass+ window to open for September!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Following! I think it is so sweet that you met your girlfriend here on the boards. A true Disney love story.

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Three - A Long Overdue Downer of an Update
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Hey everyone, sorry for my disappearance from this trip report (and the boards in general). I didn't expect to go a month between updates, but I haven't exactly been thinking about Disney much in this past month -- other than desperately wishing I was there. It's been a rough month, so this entry isn't going to be the most upbeat, but I promise things will get back on track soon enough.

Late last month, my father went into the hospital for what was supposed to be routine surgery to have his lapband removed (for various reasons, none of which are really relevant to this part of the story). While he was undergoing surgery, his heart stopped. This came as a surprise to everyone -- doctors, family, etc. -- since all his pre-surgery exams had passed with flying colors. The doctors were able to revive him, though they didn't complete the lapband removal (not that doing that was remotely a priority at that point).

A couple days later, he went back into surgery to have stents put into three of his arteries, and that surgery went fine, but it was certainly a scary few days for our entire family.

Over the next few weeks, my dad underwent a barrage of tests which kept turning up mixed results, depending on what day it was and which doctor he was seeing. It was incredibly frustrating, and made worse by the fact that I couldn't actually be there for him, being more than 1,000 miles away.

It made me realize just how much I'd taken for granted living so close to my parents for my entire adult life up until three years ago. Sure, there were times when it was annoying when they'd ask me to visit every week -- and sometimes more often than that -- and the various lectures about my weight or lack of a social life or whatever topic du jour my mom would come up with got old after a while, but for the most part it was nice having them right there, and I didn't appreciate it nearly as much as I should have.

I thought back to a few years ago -- when my parents were living in the house I have now (the one I grew up in and bought from them when they moved to Florida) and I was still living in my condo about 15 miles away. One weekend I took a trip to Wizard World Philadelphia and traveled by train rather than driving (no need to actually have my car in Philadelphia for a weekend) or flying (too expensive for such a short trip). For the sake of convenience, I left my car at my parents' house, and had my dad drop me off at the train station and pick me up a few days later.

On the day I got back to Connecticut, I knew I'd have dinner at my parents' house, since it seemed silly to have my dad pick me up, bring me to his house, then not stay for dinner. Now, I'm a stupidly-picky eater, which means that for the most part, I still eat like an 8-year-old child. So on that day, when I got home, my dad had a dinner of hot dogs and mac & cheese ready for me. It's the little things like that I didn't take time to appreciate enough, and I'll miss if I lose him.

That said, while I might eat like an 8-year-old, I'm not one, and I understand that losing my father is not a matter of "if", but "when". That's just the reality of existence. I just wasn't ready for it to hit me so suddenly and unexpectly. I think I mentioned this in a past trip report (and if I didn't or you're just reading this for the first time, sorry for getting super heavy), but I spent most of my adult life battling depression, and at the worst of it, I didn't care whether I lived or died. At the times when it got as bad as it did, the only thing that really kept me going was the thought of what my parents would do without me. I never thought I'd be around long enough to have to deal with losing one of them myself. Like the old movie said, reality bites.

Of course, things are getting better now. My dad had a pacemaker installed and his heart is doing well in all the post-op tests. But the past month has been stressful -- and I haven't been helping things by stress eating, which has of course put a dent in my weight loss goals (and by "put a dent", I mean I've gone in the wrong direction). I'm hoping now that things are getting back to normal, I can reverse that trend.

All the things I've gone through in the last month have made me wish I could be at Disney World -- and I'm working on getting to a place where I can be there more often, if not every day -- but in lieu of that, I've been trying to find a little bit of magic in every day. It's helped that I have a girlfriend to lean on in times like this. It's not like we sat down and had some big long conversation about life and death and all that, mostly because I'm not a big long conversation type of guy in general, but literally just being able to text with her every day about whatever nonsense is on my mind and having someone to share my ups and downs with -- a totally new experience for me -- has been so relieving in a way. I'm not sure I would've been able to do this without her, and I'm even more glad I get to share this Disney trip (and everything else in my life) with her.

So, as I sit here writing this, I have 70 days to go until I arrive at Disney World again. I can't promise that each day will be great, but I'll do my best to find the magic in each one -- and maybe lose a little bit of weight again along the way -- and hopefully the dream that I wish will come true...

And I promise my future updates in this trip report will be more regular (like, literally, starting tomorrow, I hope) and more fun.

 

[dizneefan13]

Adam, I am sorry to hear about the health problems your Dad has had during the last month. Hopefully his health will continue to improve and this will all be in the past. How great that you realize through all this the importance of family and have grown to appreciate your parents even more. I lost my wonderful Dad 18 years ago and I still miss him every day.
I love reading your posts and hope to hear more about your plans for your upcoming trip. We will be there two weeks in October and I can't wait!!!

 

[esilanna]

I understand what you're going through on your weight loss journey. As a plus-size woman in particular, I'm actually terrified to try Flight of Passage on my upcoming trip. Likewise, I have depression/anxiety which causes severe stress eating and binging. I wish you the best and I am rooting for you from afar!

And I am sorry to hear about your father. It's a weird feeling when you suddenly realize how fragile our own and our loved one's existences are. Just last summer, I was nearly killed by a drunk driver and my mom thought she lost me. The aftermath really put life into perspective for myself and those around me, and I feel lucky to be able to have that appreciation now. That's also why I booked our upcoming trip next month-- Disney is perfect for escapism. It lifts the spirits. I'm hopeful that your trip will help
It's so valuable to have people to talk to. I could not have survived without my boyfriend. People like that truly mean the world.

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Four - Adam's Not So Scary Halloween Costume...
​

Before I get into today's entry, a quick follow up on yesterday's: I've been listening to the full Taylor Swift discography in preparation for seeing her in concert next week (something my girlfriend is SUPER not looking forward to, but has agreed to go to because she's amazing) and on my drive home today I got to "The Best Day" and it just WRECKED me. I'm good now, but man, that last stretch driving home was rough.

Now on to happier things, specifically planning for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Technically we haven't bought our tickets yet, but we have two days during our trip when the party is happening and we don't have pre-existing plans/reservations, so we're not too worried about it selling out, but I'm very excited about it since -- as I mentioned in an earlier entry -- it's one of the big things at Disney World that I haven't done yet.

I'm pretty sure the last time I did any kind of Halloween costume was 2008, though I have done some cosplay at comic conventions since then. Sadly, I'm not going to lose enough weight to fit back into my favorite cosplay outfit, so I need to explore other options for costumes -- and no, going to MNSSHP and NOT wearing a costume is not an option.

Being entirely honest, the biggest impediment (literally) to most of my costume ideas is my size, but with my network of cosplay friends, I could probably get just about anything I wanted made for me. However, there's another big consideration for this trip: the weather. It's probably still gonna be really hot and I don't want to sweat to death in my costume. Add to that the complicating factor of making sure my costume will reasonably fit on rides and not make it impossible for me to get around the park, and some of my various options will likely have to be ruled out.

So with that in mind, here are some of the various options I'm considering:

Human from WALL-E
This was my initial idea back when I started thinking about a MNSSHP trip last year. However, a big part of the "costume" would involve renting a motorized scooter (to represent the hoverchairs from the movie), and my girlfriend pointed out to me that it'd be kind of a pain in the *** to get around the park with one of those all night, having to find a parking spot for it before every ride, etc. I could modify this to go specifically as the Captain of the Axiom, since he mostly didn't use one of the hoverchairs, so it's at least on the table, especially since it seems like the kind of costume that wouldn't be too hot (I'd also probably go with white basketball shorts too instead of the full spandex outfit for the benefit of my comfort and everyone else's eyes).

Something Princess-y
Do I look remotely like a Princess? No, not even close. But Halloween -- or at least a Halloween party a month before the actual holiday -- represents a time to be something you're not. However, I'm not gonna lie, if I was gonna be a Princess for Halloween, I'd want to go FULL Princess. Like Giselle from "Enchanted" in her wedding dress or Lottie from "The Princess and the Frog" in her party dress. And wearing something like that, if I could even do so with Disney's costume guidelines, would basically mean committing to a full night of not going on any rides, and I have no interest in just walking around the park looking amazing (and trust me, I'd look amazing). However, again, I do have a backup option in this category, and it'd probably be to do some version of Ariel's kingdom tour dress (the one she's wearing in the "Kiss the Girl" scene). The backup, backup option would be to do a Princess-themed Disney-bound outfit that wasn't a full-on costume (but would obviously be "costume-esque" for me).

Malefi-Sith
This was an idea I had to mash up Maleficent and a Sith lord, where I'd basically alter a Maleficent dress to be Sith robes, do some customization on the horns and carry either a red or purple lightsaber. Again, though, I realized two things. One, carrying around a lightsaber all night would get really old, really fast. Two, the layering involved with wearing robes all night would probably result in me turning into a sweaty mess, which would ruin any makeup job I did (or, more likely, my girlfriend did for me).

Wreck-It Ralph
When discussing Disney-themed costume options that fit my body type, this is probably the first one that comes to mind for most people. But, truthfully, I just really hate overalls. Still, it's an option that's at least on the table.

King Fergus
This one is under consideration in part because my girlfriend will likely end up doing some kind of Merida costume, and also I wouldn't have to shave for it. But it's also another one that, while it fits my body type, would be heavy and layered and involve an annoying-to-carry accessory (the sword) -- plus the complexity of doing the wooden leg in any kind of reasonably-cool fashion.

Agent of SHIELD
This is my current cosplay go-to, but that's mostly because I go to conventions with my car and the car does most of the "costume" work. I'm not sure I'd want to wear a suit all night -- which is also one of the reasons I've all but ruled out doing 'Big Daddy' La Bouff from "The Princess and the Frog" too -- and in general the costume would probably be too subtle for most people to recognize. Plus, if I'm gonna dress up at MNSSHP, I want it to be something fun and new, not something I do half a dozen other times a year.

Mr. Incredible
This is the one I'm leaning toward right now. It wouldn't be the full costumed version, but instead basically his Insuricare look (white shirt, black tie, black pants), but with the shirt pulled open to reveal an Incredibles logo shirt underneath. It has the added benefit of not having to pack too much extra, since I'd probably use the same dress clothes for brunch at California Grill that morning, then just change undershirts (and probably use some bobby pins to keep the "ripped open" look, rather than constantly pulling it open throughout the night). If I did this one, I'd probably "enhance" it with a Jack-Jack plush, which unlike some of the other accessories I'm considering could at least be stuffed into a bag at times.

I still have a few more weeks until I have to 100% commit to one of these options, at least if I decide on something where I'd need assistance in getting something made. So I'm going to take the time to weigh all the pros and cons... then probably decide to just do Mr. Incredible because it's the easiest. Though if anyone wants to volunteer to make a Giselle wedding dress in my size, I wouldn't say no to that.

 

[dizneefan13]

Lots of good costume ideas, I'd go with the one that is most comfortable. But if you decide to be a princess, I definitely wanna see lots of pics!

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Five - Fast Pass Day!
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Apologies in advance if this entry has some typos. I'm still a bit tired this morning because I had to wake up super early (well, at least super early by my standards, considering I usually don't wake up until 11 a.m. or so).

And why did I have to wake up early? Because... today's the day!



Last night I set my alarm for 6:55 a.m., then woke up 5 minutes earlier than that anyway, ready to make my FastPass+ selections for our trip in September.

I did some prep work yesterday to make sure I knew which days I wanted to grab first. One complicating factor I had to deal with is that on the "Guest Passes" castmembers can use for admission, you can only make four days worth of advance FastPass+ selections, so I had to prioritize those four days. Fortunately, I did have some spare comp tickets I could assign to my girlfriend for the other days of our trip -- however, as it turns out, those are really only "backup days", because while we'll be at WDW for 8 days, we actually only had four hard days of FastPass planning to do. So, with that in mind, here's how this morning went:

Priority 1 - Flight of Passage
We arrive in Florida on Sept. 25, and our check-in day is Sept. 26, but our first definite AK day isn't until Oct. 1, so I didn't think it'd be too much of an issue to get a FastPass for FoP at 60+5. And I was right! When I loaded up the options for that day, I had a full slate of choices for times to pick from. We're starting the day at DHS (with lunch with an Imagineer at HBD) then hopping over to AK, so I decided to get an afternoon FP. Also, while I know everyone says to grab your "hard to get" FP choices first, then go back and fill out the rest of the day, I prefer to just finish the day of planning (minus any 10 or 20 minute adjustments to make things stack better) then work on the next day. So here's what I ended up with for Oct. 1:

3:50 - Flight of Passage
4:50 - Kilimanjaro Safaris
5:55 - Expedition Everest

Since one of the goals is to see Pandora at night, I'm hoping that once we scan in for Everest, I can get a same-day FP toward the end of the night for Na'vi River Journey.

Priority 2 - Slinky Dog Dash
This was a weird one as far as priorities go, because the plan is that on our arrival day, we'll be doing the Moonlight Magic event at DHS, which will mean we won't need to FP any of the Toy Story Land attractions (or anything at DHS for that matter). But I did want to make sure we had a FastPass for SDD at some point during our trip in case we miss out on registering for the event for some reason.

I knew that there was no chance of there being SDD FPs left for Sept. 26 (the 60-day mark), but I checked anyway to confirm, and I was right. So instead I went for Oct. 2, which is another planned Park Hopping day where we have lunch at DHS. Our lunch reservation is for 1:15, so I stacked up our DHS FPs for immediately after that:

2:15 - Slinky Dog Dash
3:25 - Tower of Terror
4:25 - Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

If we don't do the DHS event on the 26th for whatever reason, the plan here would be to do SDD as soon as we finish lunch, then try to do Alien Swirling Saucers (which I assume has some DIS-friendly abbreviation I'm not aware of yet, as opposed to the obvious initial abbreviation) on standby, then do ToT close to the end of the FP window and RnRC right at the beginning.

However, if we do get into the event -- which I'm assuming we should, and I've already set an alarm for August 30 to make sure I hit the reservation page as soon as possible -- then we'll probably end up modifying all these selections for this day, since we'll have done everything we need to do at DHS and more on that night.

Priority 3 - Epcot day
I'll be honest, our FP "priorities" fell off super hard after 1 and 2. Between the DHS event on the 26th, the MK tour on the 27th, and MNSSHP on the 30th, we had a lot of stuff already planned out for us. We actually have two days where we're definitely planning on visiting Epcot, but the first of those days, Sept. 27, is only a half day. We're doing the MK tour in the morning, then a Food & Wine special event in the afternoon, then dinner at Disney Springs, so there was no point in making FastPass+ selections for that day. Our second Epcot day is much more of a full Epcot day, so that was the day I targeted for our FPs there. We have breakfast at Ale & Compass at 10:15, then we'll enter via the International Gateway and start with FEA.

11:55 - Frozen Ever After
12:55 - Spaceship Earth
1:55 - The Seas with Nemo & Friends

My guess is we'll probably take our time getting from the entrance to FEA, spending some time enjoying Food & Wine at the World Showcase. After FEA, we'll probably try to sneak in a ride on the Gran Fiesta Tour (and a margarita in Mexico) before hitting the end of the Spaceship Earth window. From there we'll head immediately to Nemo, then make our way back toward World Showcase, probably with a stop at Living With the Land and the Disney/Pixar Short Film Festival in between.

Of course, we might also go from Nemo to the monorail to hop over to MK briefly because of my obsession with seeing Cinderella's Castle, so we'll see how that goes.

Priority 4 - FPs before MNSSHP
Because of my Employee Self Admission and the guest passes, we're in a different boat than most people when it comes to going to the park on a party day. We're not "burning" a day on our tickets by going in earlier than the party allows for, so we don't have to worry about waiting until party admission begins.

That said, we're doing California Grill brunch in the morning, so there's not going to be a rush to get into the park; we're gonna need time for that meal to settle. We'll likely end up arriving at MK about the same time party admission begins, but I did want us to have some FastPass+ picks made in that after arrival/before party window so we wouldn't have to deal with lines at all. Plus, it felt weird not having any MK FastPasses booked for the entirety of the trip, so I landed on this trio:

3:15 - Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
4:15 - Journey of the Little Mermaid
5:15 - Peter Pan's Flight

The thinking behind getting FPs for 7DMT and PPF was that they're two of the rides that are most likely to have some kind of wait during the party. I considered skipping 7DMT altogether, since it's not a favorite for either my girlfriend or me, but I like that it has a ride photo, and I figured it'd be fun to get photos with us in our costumes (we'll do Pirates during the party for the same reason... though we might skip Splash Mountain, depending on what my costume ends up being).

The Backup Days
With the four days of guest pass FastPass+ planning exhausted, I moved on to making selections for our "backup days". First up was our arrival day, where I made some DHS FastPass+ picks in case we don't get to do the Moonlight Magic event:

4:15 - Alien Swirling Saucers
5:35 - Star Tours
8:00 - Fantasmic

Depending on what time the event officially begins, I might end up keeping that Fantasmic FastPass so we could do it before the event. Or, if we get into the event, we could switch all the FastPasses to a different park and do Fantasmic on standby, since there is plenty of seating there.

The other "backup" day I made picks for was Saturday Sept. 29. Right now our plan is for that to be a no parks day, but I grabbed some Animal Kingdom fastpasses in the event we decide we don't want to wait all the way until Oct. 1 to give FoP a shot. In addition to doing an afternoon FP for that, I picked FPs for the Finding Nemo and Lion King shows. I truly doubt we'll do all of that, but we might swing over to the park for an hour or two just to try FoP, and maybe have a light dinner at Satu'li Canteen before bar hopping at Disney Springs that night.

That leaves two days of our trip with no FastPass selections at all: Sept. 27 (the tour day) and Oct. 3 (our departure day). Once we actually do our FastPasses on the 28th, we'll be able to make an additional day of selections on the guest pass, which means we might end up making some picks on departure day... or we could end up just leisurely enjoying our last day at Food & Wine before we have to leave.

 

[dizneefan13]

Your itinerary looks amazing! I wish I was a better planner... I need to get in gear with a tentative plan because our FP window opens up soon for October trip.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Hi, Adam! As usual, I'm super happy to find another trip report from you. I'm all caught up now and am so glad your dad is doing better! What a wonderful thing to have your girlfriend to lean on during that time. Sending best wishes to your dad for continued recovery and improved health.

As for your upcoming trip:
1) Yay!!!! FoP fast pass!!! Cannot wait to hear about your ride. Hope you love it!
2) Mr. Incredible and Jack Jack would be a great costume for MNSSHP, especially if it allows you to ride rides comfortably. Can't wait to see what you end up wearing, though! You're quite creative, so I'm sure you'll settle on something perfect for your night of fun.

Wishing you and your girlfriend a wonderful anniversary trip! Happy planning!

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Six - One Year Later... Again...
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For those of you who've been following along since the beginning of this trip report, you may recognize today as a special day: it's the one-year anniversary of my first date with my girlfriend. And to celebrate this momentous occasion we... went to work separately and went home separately and are doing nothing special tonight. Yay?

That's largely due to the fact that our anniversary fell on a Wednesday, which isn't exactly a big "go out and celebrate" day, but also because we celebrated A LOT this past weekend. It started with seeing Taylor Swift in Foxboro on Thursday night -- something my girlfriend was VERY nice to put up with, since she's not a Swiftie at all -- then spending the weekend together before going to see the Smashing Pumpkins at Mohegan Sun on Sunday night. In between the two concerts, we had plenty of celebratory meals, which means we're now both back in diet mode. I need to lose about 30 pounds before our Disney trip, so I'm focusing again on eating right, but I've also decided that I'm not going to obsess about hitting a target number. I don't need to, because this isn't a situation where I need to get under a number so I can go on the Wild Africa Trek -- and if it was, I'd be screwed, since there's no way I'm getting under 300 by September (and even if I did, I'd still need to account for the weight of the equipment). My goal is to fit on a ride, so I'm going to track my progress by "fit". How my clothes fit will tell me how I'm doing.

On that note, I've already bought some new clothes for this trip (hey, look at that segue... it's almost like I'm a professional writing type person or something). Five new T-shirts to be exact, which covers five of the eight days I'll be at the parks. One of the days is the MNSSHP day, so that'll be a costume, and I'll probably wear my Cinderella's Castle outfit again, so I'll probably end up buying one more T-shirt before September, but for now, let's look at the ones I already bought (with links in case you're interested in them too).

The first one technically isn't "new", since it's just a re-purchase of a T-shirt I already had, just in a smaller size (and I gotta be honest, it felt really good to go down a size, even if it was just one). It's my Taylor Swift/The Little Mermaid mash-up shirt, which I actually wore to the Taylor Swift concert last week and got multiple compliments on.

​

I love Disney/other pop culture mash-ups, and I was a HUGE "Pretty Little Liars" fan back when it was on, so when I saw this "Royal Little Liars" shirt, I had to have it. Aurora as the stand-in for Ali is perfect on so many levels.

​

The next one is another mash-up, this time between two Disney properties. I've always wanted a really good Baymax T-shirt, and this one caught my eye right away. Baymax and Sadness are a perfect match (and now that I'm thinking of it, I really need to wear this on an Epcot day and try to do the Baymax and Joy/Sadness character meets while wearing it).

​

Whenever I get new Disney gear, I almost always end up getting stuff from "Frozen", I think in part because artists get really creative with the characters. This first one appealed to me on two levels: specifically, being a redhead (whose hair is ALWAYS a disaster when getting out of bed) and not being a morning person at all.

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And if I got an Anna T-shirt, it was only fair that I got an Elsa T-shirt too. I'm excited for people to ask not where I got this T-shirt, but if the Snowflake Lounge is a real place at Disney World... because honestly, it should be (or, at least, there should be a Disney-themed karaoke bar somewhere on property other than the one at the Swan, but that's a post for a different day).

​

When I shopped for these, I was just browsing through TeePublic and bookmarking ones I liked as I went, thinking I'd probably come close to having enough options for my trip. Instead, by the time I was done browsing, I'd found I'd bookmarked about 20 different shirts. Whoops. I ended up settling on these five at first, and narrowed down the rest of them to about 3 or 4 I really like and might end up getting before September (which includes the Incredibles logo T-shirt if I end up doing the Mr. Incredible costume). Now just to figure out how to pack all these T-shirts and everything else and still leave room for souvenirs in my luggage.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Happy anniversary to you and your girlfriend! Sounds like you two had a fun weekend.

Love the Teepublic shirts. That's one of our favorite places to shop. The Anna and Elsa shirts are my fave. I feel like Anna every morning. The Snowflake Lounge shirt would be perfect for the Frozen party if you get to go. The Baymax and Sadness shirt is so sweet. Love that one, too!

 

[kclark9830]

Following along! Enjoying things so far .

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Seven - I’m Going To Disneyland!
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I’m at Boston Comic Con this weekend exhibiting my Agents of SHIELD car, but Disney is never far from my mind. Case in point, these were two of the first visitors to my booth today:



And shortly after, one of my favorite Princesses paid a visit:



(Btw, when I said in my MNSSHP post that I wanted to wear a princess costume, this is exactly the kind of gorgeously absurdly unwieldy thing I had in mind).

But before the convention started, I got some good Disney-related news: I’m going to Disneyland!

Well, technically I’m going to Los Angeles for our annual NBA planning meetings, but rather than just fly out the day before and fly back on the red eye after the second day of meetings, I’m staying out there a whole week. Yes, I’ll be working much of that time, but I’ll have at least two days, plus however many pre- and post-work hours I can spare, to take in Disneyland.

So now my upcoming Disney travel schedule looks like this:

Sept. 15-23 - Disneyland
Sept. 26-Oct. 3 - Disney World
Oct. 12-15 - Disney World again
November at some point - Hopefully a Disney Cruise

This is all coming after having been at WDW in January, February and May. If I wasn’t already a castmember with a self-admission pass, I definitely would’ve needed to invest in an annual pass by now.

Sadly, my girlfriend won’t be able to join me at Disneyland next month, but she’s already said she’s giving me a shopping list of things to get that you can’t find at WDW (like the DL and DCA “You Are Here” Starbucks mugs). I’m probably going to have to bring an extra empty suitcase.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

The people in Boston really know how to cosplay. Great outfits! I would have fan-girled over the Rumple. Ariel looks like a youtuber my daughter follows.

Hope we get to hear all about your DL trip.

 

[adamreisinger]

The people in Boston really know how to cosplay.

This was the best cosplay I saw all weekend, Disney-related or otherwise: