A New Trip Full of New Memories...Hopefully It Happens! - July 2020 PTR (Completed)

[cstorm65]

A New Trip Full of New Memories...Hopefully It Happens! - July 2020 PTR

Welcome everyone! It’s time for another PTR from me and thanks so much for reading and commenting. Planning for and reliving these trips after is a lot of fun as many of your know. This is certainly going to be a memorable trip for many reasons and I can say that before the trip even takes place. We scheduled to go on this trip in July, but currently we are in the midst of the COVID-19 situation and so the future is very uncertain. We are holding out hope the parks are open when it comes time for our trip, but his situation has made the planning process very interesting and I’m sure the next couple of months while we wait to see if this trip even happens will be very interesting as well.

This trip will be our family's 8th trip to Disney World overall, but we haven’t been in over two years. We typically do the plan where we get an annual pass and do three trips within a year...July, December, June. That way we are getting the most bang for our buck when it comes to our tickets. Once that year of Disney is over we take the next summer off before starting over again. You can see our trip report for all those trips HERE.

Our family of four loves Disney World and this trip will be memorable for a number of reasons, other than COVID-19, if it actually happens, First, it will be our first trip as DVC members which is very exciting. This is also the reason we are going to go if at all possible because with an August use year we won’t be able to bank our points or use them at a later date, so it’s use them or lose them. Second, it will be our first time doing things like Toy Story Land, Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, and a few other smaller experiences. We are so excited about these new things, especially the kiddos!

Another thing to know about us is we love to take good, long trips. We just have found that for us we get more bang for our buck when we can do longer trips since DW and I are both teachers and have the ability to do that in the summers. But we have some other places we want to travel like our Caribbean Cruise we did with Royal Caribbean this last summer, which was awesome. I’m currently in the middle of that trip report over on the Royal Caribbean boards here on the Dis, you can FIND THAT HERE. Well, let’s do some introductions.

Introductions

I will start by introducing myself, I’m Jon.

I am a high school athletic director and head football coach and love the job I get to do every day. I’ve been teaching and coaching at the same school for twelve years and have just finished my third season as a head football coach. Anyway, I honestly think I have the best job in the world. Being able to make a positive impact on kids every day is something I love doing. It certainly has its challenges, but overall I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

Favorite Character: Goofy
Favorite Ride: Flight of Passage
Favorite Show: Festival of the Lion King
Favorite Disney Animated Movie: The Lion King
Favorite Disney Restaurant: ‘Ohana

Now for my best friend and wife, April (DW).

April loves our family vacations as well as almost any time we get to spend together. We have developed a love for Disney and vacationing together and it is something she cherishes. She is a school psychologist by day and an incredible mother and wife by night. She works in the same school district I do and so we get to see each other almost every day, which really is nice. She loves her job working with kids and is also an assistant girls basketball coach at our school as well, which she loves doing.

Favorite Character: Ariel
Favorite Ride: Rock 'n Roller Coaster
Favorite Show: Festival of the Lion King
Favorite Disney Animated Movie: Little Mermaid
Favorite Disney Restaurant: Whispering Canyon Cafe

Next up is our eight year old, DS8,

I say this every year, but I can’t believe he is eight years old. It seems like just yesterday that he was born and came into our family, but I’m sure all of you with kids think it goes fast too! He has a great personality and is a good kid most of the time. He loves playing sports and plays basketball, baseball, track, & flag football. In addition to all of these things he still loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but also has a recent infatuation with Marvel and Star Wars movies. He is finishing up 2nd grade right now through distance learning and he isn’t a big fan because he hates being away from his friends, but I’m sure there are a bunch of kids in that boat right now! Anyway, he is an awesome kid and is a great big brother.

Favorite Character: Mickey Mouse
Favorite Ride: Flight of Passage
Favorite Show: Anything with Mickey in It
Favorite Disney Animated Movie: Inside Out
Favorite Disney Restaurant: Garden Grill

Finally, we have the four year old in our family, DS4.

He will be 4 years old during our trip and this will already be his 4th trip to Disney World. DS4 is an incredibly sweet little boy who LOVES his mommy! DS8 was always kind of a daddy’s boy, but DS4 has certainly taken the other side. He just loves to sit and play with his mom. He loves playing with any type of ball and he also loves to sit and watch basketball on TV, go figure! He enjoys shows like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and some of the other Disney Junior shows, but his big lover right now is the Frozen movies! I think he can quote the entire first movie! He has had a great time on our past trips and as many of you know these trips with kids his age are so fun because each trip as he gets a bit older the things he enjoys changes and it changes the entire experience for the family, which is why many of us love Disney. For instance on this trip he is already saying he wants to ride some big roller coasters!

Favorite Character: Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Finn, & Kristoff (He Couldn’t Decide)
Favorite Ride: Frozen Ever After
Favorite TV Show: Puppy Dog Pals
Favorite Disney Animated Movie: Frozen
Favorite Restaurant: Anyplace that serves french fries!

Up Next: The Master Itinerary​

 

[cstorm65]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Master Itinerary
Day 1 Plans
Day 2 Plans
Day 3 Plans
What Are We Going to Do Now?
The Master Itinerary: Take 2
Day 1 Plans: Take 2
Day 2 Plans: Take 2
Day 3 Plans: Take 2
Day 4 Plans
Day 5 Plans
Day 6 Plans
Major Trip Update
Day 7 Plans
Day 8 Plans
Day 9 Plans
Day 10 Plans​

 

[cstorm65]

Past Trips and Trip Reports

Current Trip Report
July 2019 - Escape from Home Life to July 4th on the High Seas

Current Pre-Trip Report
July 2020 - A New Trip Full of New Memories...Hopefully It Happens!

Past Trip Reports
June 2018 - Escape from Craziness to Fireworks, Food, and a DVC Tour
December 2017 - Escape from School to Crazy Christmas Crowds
July 2017 - Escape From Craziness to Pandora, Po Boys, and Oppressive Heat
June/July 2014 - Escape from Real Life to Paradise: A New Trip with New Memories
June 2013 - Escape from Tornado Alley to Food, Tropical Storms, Mickey and More Food
June 2011 - "Can Two Thrill Ride Junkies Love Disneyworld?"

Past Pre-Trip Reports
June 2018 - Let's Put These AP's to Use! A June 2018 PTR
July 2017 - Our First Trip As a Family of Four!
June 2015 - We’re Going For the Record...A Record Number of Resort Changes!

Past Trips
June 2018 - WDW Dolphin/Yacht Club Resort (Trip Report)
December 2017 - All Star Sports (Trip Report)
July 2017 - Pop Century/Port Orleans French Quarter (Trip Report)
June 2015 - Pop Century/Coronado Springs Resort
June/July 2014 - Disney Dream Cruise/Wilderness Lodge (Trip Report)
June 2013 - Pop Century/Universal Royal Pacific/Boardwalk Villas (Trip Report)
June 2011 - Caribbean Beach Resort (Trip Report)
July 2008 - Offsite

Upcoming Trips
July 2020 - TBA "First Trip as DVC Owners"

 

[ariane37]

Joining in fellow July traveler! And let me say right off I am of the opinion at this moment that we will BOTH get to go We had to cancel our April Disney cruise/WDW stay and now just had to forget our Memorial weekend stay; fingers are still crossed for our make up June stay We've had our July 4th trip booked since before all this started and darn it, I intend for that one to stick!

I don't usually do PTR's as I'm more a TR/dining report writer but I started a PTR just to keep my spirits up and give myself another reason to stop in here So exciting that you'll have all the new lands to explore this July! I look forward to reading along and seeing what your plans are.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Joining in! We're also hoping to travel in July!

 

[cstorm65]

Joining in fellow July traveler! And let me say right off I am of the opinion at this moment that we will BOTH get to go We had to cancel our April Disney cruise/WDW stay and now just had to forget our Memorial weekend stay; fingers are still crossed for our make up June stay We've had our July 4th trip booked since before all this started and darn it, I intend for that one to stick!

I don't usually do PTR's as I'm more a TR/dining report writer but I started a PTR just to keep my spirits up and give myself another reason to stop in here So exciting that you'll have all the new lands to explore this July! I look forward to reading along and seeing what your plans are.

We are hopeful to at this point that we get to go as well. Hopefully things continue to move in that direction.
I have done a few PTR's, although mostly just to get excited for the trip coming up like you said! We really need that this time to hopefully keep our hope up! haha

Joining in! We're also hoping to travel in July!

Crossing those fingers for all of us July people! Thanks for joining!

 

[DLo]

Popping over from your cruise TR. looking forward to reading more . Hoping you get to go in July.

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

I'm here and I'm pretty sure you'll be going in July... It may be unlike any other trip you've taken, but it'll still be fun!

 

[cstorm65]

Popping over from your cruise TR. looking forward to reading more . Hoping you get to go in July.

Thanks for coming over! We are hoping we get to go too! We shall see...

I'm here and I'm pretty sure you'll be going in July... It may be unlike any other trip you've taken, but it'll still be fun!

I hope you're right. I think they will be open in some capacity too and we will see what that is probably in the next couple of weeks. It will definitely be unlike any other trip, but as long as our boys can swim at the pool and ride BTMRR, Seven Dwarfs, and Everest they will be happy!

 

[cstorm65]

The Master Itinerary

Now that we’ve introduced everyone we can move on to looking at the itinerary for the trip. I really enjoy planning these trips, as most of us on here do, and the PTR serves a few purposes. 1) To organize my thoughts on all of the different components of the trip, 2) To get suggestions from all of you on the different things we plan on doing, and 3) To build some excitement for the trip! #3 is very important this year, especially since we are hoping this trip just takes place to begin with! I hope you all enjoy reading and please comment with any suggestions along the way.

If you’ve read any of my other Trip Reports you’ll see we like long trips. I think we’ve stayed for 2 weeks for each of our last two summer trips and this will be no different. Since DW and I are both teachers we have the luxury of summer break and we prioritize spending vacation time with our family during the summer. We also like longer trips because we can really get our money's worth out of the annual passes as well as only having to fly down one time and getting a really long trip out of it. Now, we also have to do split stays for our trips because I do use my annual Travel Agent discount for one week, but that is the longest you can stay on the discounted rate. This time we do have a 5 night stay on our TA rate and then we are staying the rest of our time on our DVC points at our home resort.

Anyways, for the first several days of our trip we are going to stay at All Star Music resort in a family suite. This is a new resort to us, although we did stay at All Star Sports for a Christmas trip a couple of years ago. This will be our first time in a suite type room at Disney as well which we are really looking forward to.

We are also looking forward to this because they have been refurbishing the rooms at All Star Music, so we are crossing our fingers that we get a refurbed room. Going into this COVID closure they had about half of the family suites updated, so hopefully we get one of those. We love the look of these newly refurbed rooms like they’ve done at Pop Century as well.

After we stay for the first half of our trip at All Star Music we will be moving to our DVC home resort at the Copper Creek Villas at Wilderness Lodge.

We LOVE Wilderness Lodge and that is part of the reason we went ahead and jumped into the DVC game a couple of years ago. We had planned on waiting another few years, but Wilderness Lodge is one of our favorites and we had always talked about how great it would be to own there and now we do! Can't wait to be here again:

We are also very excited to stay in these rooms:

So, with all of that in mind, here is the master itinerary:

Day 1 - Saturday
Fly to Orlando
Check into All Star Music Family Suite

Day 2-6 - Saturday to Thursday
Staying at All Star Music

Day 6 - Thursday
Resort Change from All Star Music to Copper Creek Villas

Day 6-15 - Thursday to Saturday
Staying at Port Orleans-Riverside

Day 15 - Saturday
Fly Home

I will get a little bit more in-depth and go through each specific day as we go along in this PTR, but that kind of lays the groundwork for the trip. Hope everyone has a great week!

Up Next: Day 1 Plans​

 

[ariane37]

This will be our first time in a suite type room at Disney as well which we are really looking forward to.

I have stayed at all the resorts save 2 but I have yet to stay in a family suite. However IF our June trip pans out we will be staying in a Cars suite at AOA and I'm actually really looking forward to it! I toured a refurbed Nemo suite for work in October and it was adorable; the Music look cute too!

fter we stay for the first half of our trip at All Star Music we will be moving to our DVC home resort at the Copper Creek Villas at Wilderness Lodge.

And here is my absolute favorite by far resort WL will always be my first choice however our boys need their own beds now and I go by what's available for each trip with my discount so no WL for us for our next 3 scheduled trips. But we did stay at CCV once and loved the room!

I like the idea of not staying at the same resort for your trip length too. We don't go that long but even for our July 6 night stay we're splitting.

 

[cstorm65]

I have stayed at all the resorts save 2 but I have yet to stay in a family suite. However IF our June trip pans out we will be staying in a Cars suite at AOA and I'm actually really looking forward to it! I toured a refurbed Nemo suite for work in October and it was adorable; the Music look cute too!

And here is my absolute favorite by far resort WL will always be my first choice however our boys need their own beds now and I go by what's available for each trip with my discount so no WL for us for our next 3 scheduled trips. But we did stay at CCV once and loved the room!

I like the idea of not staying at the same resort for your trip length too. We don't go that long but even for our July 6 night stay we're splitting.

Yes, WL is the best! We love the resort vibe, the quick service locations, Whispering Canyon, the boat to MK, and about everything else. Also, the staff is always so great there too! It's just my favorite!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 1 Plans

Day one of our trip is obviously the day we are traveling “home”! This is where we already have our first change of the trip due to COVID. Our original plans were to take direct flights out of OKC to Orlando. I mean we were so excited we finally had direct flights on Southwest from our smaller home airport to Orlando and it was nonstop in both directions. And then about two weeks ago Southwest cancelled those flights and automatically put us on new flights that connected through Baltimore, MD. Not only is that a lot of extra flight time we didn’t really want we were already contemplating the idea of driving due to COVID and not being super thrilled about flying. Well, we had decided to fly since it was an easy direct flight and then this happened.

So, at least with Southwest you can cancel and get credit back on what you paid, but I just checked and Southwest had $49 each way direct flights from Dallas to Orlando. So, at this point we are booked nonstop out of Dallas (Love) to Orlando. We will just drive the three hours from our home to Dallas the night before and we fly out around 8:00 AM. The only good part is I was able to switch to these flights and save about $300 total from what we were paying out of OKC. So we have some credit for future flights!

We will arrive in Orlando around 11:00 AM and head here:

Or here:

We are considering renting a car on this trip just so we have that method of transport. Again, we aren’t sure how COVID will affect things like bus and monorail travel so having a car may be convenient. So, more to come on this topic!

After transporting ourselves somehow we will head to check in here:

Again, we are very excited about staying in the family suite room type and are looking forward to having that extra bit of space for part of our trip. It makes things so much easier!

We are planning to head to a park on this day just because everyday we can take advantage of Fastpasses is a benefit, especially with how hard it is to get FP’s for all of the new stuff at Hollywood Studios. On this arrival day we are headed here:

Our main goal is to use our fastpass at Test Track. It will be DS4's first ride on this and he says he is doing it for sure because he wants to go fast! We shall see if he follows through!

We also have FP’s at Nemo & Living with the Land, but we won’t be using the Living with the Land FP. I booked it for earlier in the day so as soon as we use our last one I can try to grab a FP for Frozen that late afternoon. DS4 loves Frozen, so as many times as we can do that ride is a major goal!

We plan to be out of this park by 5:30 so we can head back and get settled in the room and check out the resort. We usually don’t go this hard on an arrival day, but the Fastpass system kind of lends itself to this, especially with an annual pass. Don’t worry though, the next day we are only doing a morning park and we’ve scheduled the rest of the day off to rest and have some pool time.

Up Next: Day 2 Plans​

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

Great first day plans!!! Guessing DS4 is going to be loving all the thrill rides this year!!! Is he tall enough for all of them???

We prefer direct flights too... And score on the $300 savings for future flights!!! The 3 hour drive is worth the savings, especially since you still have direct flights... And why would SW route you from OK to MD to FL??? That's crazy to spend 8 hours flying for a 2.5 hour flight!!!

 

[cstorm65]

Great first day plans!!! Guessing DS4 is going to be loving all the thrill rides this year!!! Is he tall enough for all of them???

Right now he says he is going to ride Seven Dwarfs, Big Thunder, Test Track...so we will see if he chickens out or not. I have an unbelievable amount of FP's for Big Thunder & Seven Dwarfs! haha

We prefer direct flights too... And score on the $300 savings for future flights!!! The 3 hour drive is worth the savings, especially since you still have direct flights... And why would SW route you from OK to MD to FL??? That's crazy to spend 8 hours flying for a 2.5 hour flight!!!

It was a good savings, they no doubt slashed some prices due to the current situation. My parents had to do that OK to MD to FL route on a trip they came with us on one time. They said it was miserable...instead of a 2.5 hour flight from OKC to MCO it was a 2.5 hour flight to Maryland and then another 2.25 hour flight to Orlando. It's just a lot of excess time on a plane.

 

[cstorm65]

Day 2 Plans

After our first nights sleep at Disney World we are always ready to go for the next day, so we will certainly take advantage of that and head to Magic Kingdom here this morning. We typically like to work counter clockwise in the park at rope drop and that has always worked well for us. Our main goal this morning will be to get DS4 phased into the coasters, so we aren’t going to do any coasters before doing Barnstormer for him. So, we will probably just do Astro Orbiter and Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland before moving back to Fantasyland. Our boys do like Astro, but it always has such a painstakingly slow line, so we find it is easiest to do it at rope drop and they will often give you two rides if you are there right at the beginning!

After hitting a couple favorites in Tomorrowland we will head back towards Dumbo and Barnstormer. Usually we find doing Barnstormer first is a better deal as it’s line builds quicker as long as Dumbo has both ride systems going in the morning. So Barnstormer will be a warm up coaster for DS4. Like I’ve said, he insists he is going to do all of the roller coasters and has watched them on YouTube, but you all are experienced and you know once he gets there and sees them he may change his mind!

So, our plan is to ease him in. Here was DS8 on our last trip, when he was 6!

For the rest of the morning we have some fastpasses at Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain. All three some of our favorites. We will also have our traditional first Magic Kingdom lunch of the trip at Columbia Harbor House. This is such a great place and we’ll definitely go find a table upstairs!

Normally we are out of the parks by 1:00 at the latest if we do rope drop, so that will be the plan here so we can head back, get a nap for DS4, and swim some. We are not planning on a park this evening just because we did some things on our arrival day that we don’t normally do. So we will take this time to rest up. We might possibly head over to Disney Springs for some dinner or something at a favorite place like D’Luxe Burger or try something new like Chicken Guy. It will be hard not to get one of our favorite burgers on property, but we might have to split like two meals at each place instead of all of us eating at only one place. Who knows! That burger at D’Luxe is good though and all of the dipping sauces are great too!

That’s it for day 2 and we will be back and in bed at a decent time as we have another rope drop the next morning!

Up Next: Day 3 Plans​

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Hi, Jon! I'm excited to see your plans for another of your fabulous long trips. My goodness, how did your boys get so big?!

My fingers are crossed very hard for you that it will work out to go on your trip. I think it's still so touch-and-go - I hope the DVC Rental folks are being flexible with people that have expiring points. I also would strongly consider renting a car - you may appreciate not having to worry about traveling by bus or monorail if you don't have to.

Your first two days of plans sound great! I always start my Disney trips at Epcot, too! I've never considered booking my first FP to expire before we arrive in order to pull an additional 1st tier FP - what a great idea!

 

[cstorm65]

Hi, Jon! I'm excited to see your plans for another of your fabulous long trips. My goodness, how did your boys get so big?!

My fingers are crossed very hard for you that it will work out to go on your trip. I think it's still so touch-and-go - I hope the DVC Rental folks are being flexible with people that have expiring points. I also would strongly consider renting a car - you may appreciate not having to worry about traveling by bus or monorail if you don't have to.

Your first two days of plans sound great! I always start my Disney trips at Epcot, too! I've never considered booking my first FP to expire before we arrive in order to pull an additional 1st tier FP - what a great idea!

Thanks for those thoughts. DW and I discussed the rental car situation again today and even though we don't normally do that, we agreed if there was ever a time for it this was it!

Also, I feel so bad for people that rented DVC points throughout this ordeal. I think some have been taken care of, but not all and that stinks. Also, DVC owners have been given a little reprieve, but if our trip doesn't happen we will lose some points and not have an option to use them since some of ours that we are using are banked points and you are only given six months to use those.

 

[cstorm65]

Day 3 Plans

After what we plan to be an evening of rest the night on Day 2 we are getting up this morning to head to Epcot. We aren’t using FP’s at Epcot this morning as we are saving them for our evening park, but we plan on doing Soarin’ at Rope Drop this morning before heading to one of our favorite breakfast reservations in all of Disney World.

After our Garden Grill breakfast we plan on maybe hitting a couple of smaller attractions like Nemo and/or Figment before being out of the park by around noon.

We will head back to All Star Music for a little afternoon break and swim and get ready for our night out. We are heading here this evening:

This is actually one of the most up in the air evenings of our trip though. Our plan all along has been to purchase tickets to Villains After Hours, but at this point who knows whether those special events will happen...of course we are just hopeful to get to go at this point, but I’m holding out hope.

The event still shows as active on the Disney website and hasn’t been cancelled officially yet, but who knows. We do have three FP’s at Magic Kingdom before the event starts for Space Mountain, Seven Dwarfs, and Pirates. Our boys are super excited about getting on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

That will about do it for the plan for this day, but again this day could change quite a bit depending on how things progress.

Up Next: Day 4 Plans​

 

[ariane37]

We haven't been to D-Lux Burger yet as we don't do lost of QS but everyone I know who has gone really enjoys it. For some reason I feel like, if our July trip is a go, we may be doing more QS?? And if so we'll give it a try along with Polite Pig for the first time.

before heading to one of our favorite breakfast reservations in all of Disney World.

Nice! We enjoy breakfast here as well. Boma too, and we finally tried Cape May breakfast last year and the food was great! A few different choices and the characters were great as well.

Our plan all along has been to purchase tickets to Villains After Hours, but at this point who knows whether those special events will happen.

Yeah.....same boat. I've done 2 AH at HS and 2 at MK but not villains yet and I had it in mind for July. I'm holding off until I know for sure we're going, and I do hope we have a clue by the end of the week. Our originally planned trip starts 7/3 but I have a back up starting the 24th just in case.

So far your trip sounds great! We just turned our June Disney trip into a Universal trip and while I'm excited, this is the first Universal "only" trip we've ever done and......there's no planning to do lol.