Well after neglecting my trip report, our trip is just a few weeks away! I'm keeping a close eye on the weather and hoping Dorian doesn't bring too much damage to Florida.
I'm so excited, I've already started packing. We're doing matching outfits each day again (and despite my promises to tone it down this year... we still have one day with 4 outfits - but have a couple days with only 1 outfit too!). I've packed gallon size bags by day and character. I've received all the t-shirts I ordered new this year, and we're just waiting on a few dresses I ordered for my oldest daughter. One of the reasons we'll have so many outfits is that many from last year still fit both girls, and the adults can re-wear our t-shirts. So, why not?
Here are our "final" plans - I may still make a few tweaks, but I think we're good to go. As always, I appreciate any feedback and tips!
Days 1 & 2: Travel days. My MIL is flying to stay with us the night before we leave. I'm so excited to have her help for the long car ride again! We'll leave after work the first day (hopefully cutting out a little early) and drive until around 11pm. On the second day we'll have about 9 hours of driving time, but we lose an hour coming from Central time and I'm expecting about 2 hours of time spent stopping for the girls. So we'll need to be on the road no later than 7:00am CST.
I have matching shirts for our 2nd travel day - the red Disney Mouseketeer shirts. My parents refused to participate in matching shirts most days :-D but did say they would try to match colors for some. They let me order matching shirts for just one day.
We'll meet my parents at the resort. We're staying at Wilderness Lodge for the first half of the trip, so we have dinner reservations at
Whispering Canyon Café at 7:30pm on our first night.
Day 3: Epcot
Morning Outfit: Belle yellow dresses (girls) / World Traveler t-shirts (me and MIL)
We have a pre-park opening reservation (8:10am) at
Akershus. I know it's not likely, but really hoping we can eat and see all the princesses before the park opens at 9am. The plan is to jump over to Frozen Ever After after we eat since I didn't get a FP for it. We may also try to meet Anna and Elsa before leaving the World Showcase, in which case we'll change into our
Frozen Outfits. I have an Elsa dress for DD4 and an Anna dress for DD2, and Frozen themed t-shirts for me, Pat and MIL.
Next we'll head to the front of the park for our 3 FPs:
The Seas w/ Nemo and Friends
Soarin' (not sure if DD4 will give this one a try, but got her a FP just in case)
Spaceship Earth
We also plan to fit in Turtle Talk and Living with the Land between FPs. We should wrap up with the front of the park around 12:30pm and then plan to spend the rest of the afternoon making our way around the World Showcase. We'll be there for the F&W Festival, so I've already started plotting out food stops I know I'll want to make. A dole whip with Bacardi Coconut Rum is on my list, and I can't wait to have the Brazilian cheese bread again. I was disappointed to not see the Greek Nachos on the menu this year (did I just miss that?). What other food or drink should we be sure not to miss?
Our "lunch" will be made up of snacks around the world. If we missed them earlier, we'll try to meet Anna & Elsa in the afternoon, and then make an outfit change to visit
Jasmine in Morocco. She was a hit last year, and the girls' Jasmine dresses still fit them.
We'll wrap up with dinner at
Teppan Edo. I really wanted to see Illuminations before the show is over, but it's not until 10pm, and there is no way our whole party will make it that late. My guess is we will head back to our resort around 8:30-9:00pm. If I'm feeling really good, there is a small chance I might stay on my own or with Pat while my parents take the girls back. But, we all have to leave the resort at 6:30am the next day, so it's probably smart to get back and get some sleep.
Day 4: Animal Kingdom
Outfits: Safari Minnie dresses (girls) / Red Lion King shirts (adults)
There are EMH beginning at 7:00am this day. I don't feel like we need to be there at opening, but am hoping we can be out the door around 6:30am to make it not too long after, and take advantage of slightly lower crowds. Our first stop will be Creature Comforts because after a bit of poor planning caused coffee delays 2 years ago (which in turn, caused grumpy adults, myself included), I made it a priority to carve out time dedicated to caffeine stops each morning.
We plan to start with the Safaris and Expedition Everest. Our first FP will be to meet Safari Minnie and Mickey. Last year we were surprised to find them in their Christmas sweaters at AK. They were cute, but I'm hoping for a safari outfit this year.
Then we plan to check out Maharajah Jungle Trek. I'm pretty sure we missed it the past two years, so it's high on our list this year even though it's not a typical headliner for most people.
Our next FP is for Festival of the Lion King. I absolutely love this show and plan to go twice this trip. Last year when we went, we were sat kind of low down and on an aisle, and the playful monkeys came over to us and pretended to eat bugs out of our hair. This traumatized the girls. Every night they make me promise that we will sit up high so that the "monkeys don't eat us." I can't believe they remember that.
Our last FP is for Navi River Journey, and then we'll eat lunch at Satu'li Canteen. Our afternoon is somewhat open. We might check out the Hakuna Matata dance party, and will probably take the Wildlife Express to the Conservation Station. If I can snag a 4th FP we might try the new animation class, but I'm not sure if DD2 would concentrate/enjoy it. I've been looking for reports of others who have tried it.
We're hoping to leave the park around 2:30pm to go back to our resort. I shocked everyone and made no plans for the rest of the day. If we want to stay at the park longer, we can. If we want to go back and nap, we can. I'm hoping we'll make some time to swim, and maybe we'll get food and just eat beside the pool. I am looking forward to having a little "down time" at Disney this year!
Stay tuned for the next 5 (!!) park days
