AP is renewed-- bring on another YEAR of Disney! TR-Feb; PTR 4/6/10/12

[kcpinwdw]

2017 was truly an epic year of Disney travel for our family, and 2018 is shaping up pretty nicely too. I thought a good pre-trip report was in order to a) organize my plans, b) satisfy my need to talk about Disney, and c) get some feedback and ideas from all you lovely experts!

Introductions. First, I am Casey. My husband Jer and I visited WDW and DL a couple times together over the years, but fell headfirst into the "frequent flyer' category after we first brought our twins. They are 5 now, will be 6 this summer. Here we all are:


Who we are: Jer and I are both doctors. I my free time I enjoy sewing, knitting, crafting in general, reading, and travel planning. Our kids are both in kindergarten this year! Sylvie is a little princess but starting to grow up, she just discovered "High School Musical" and is obsessed. She is more thrill-seeking and less shy than her brother. Ben is my little emotional guy. He loves Goofy and he's not a big ride fan. But he gets picked to be the Beast at Enchanted Tales with Belle pretty much every time.


This was the first, he was 3 here.

In 2017 we had the following trips:
January: long weekend, stayed at Wilderness Lodge
Feb: I went with a friend for Princess Marathon Weekend--- got upgraded to GF!
April: true last minute trip for the weekend when we got $45 round trip flights on Spirit, and stayed at WL.
June: visited family in California and went to Legoland and Disneyland
August: Brought my mom and the twins for a few days at Beach Club CL, then mom left and hubby came down for five nights at Contemporary garden wing and an early MNSSHP
Sept: Our first Disney cruise from NYC to Canada
Nov: Hubby and I came to food and Wine weekend for our anniversary and I ran a 5K. First stay at Boardwalk Inn.
Dec: Epic family trip with Jer's extended family. 14 of us in total, massive planning and fairly perfect trip. Stayed at Boulder Ridge.

Clearly, we are a work hard/play hard family.

Overview of 2018:
Feb: Princess weekend mother/daughter trip
April: Dark side weekend with my buddy Erinn
May/June: Mother/son weekend trip
Oct: MNSSHP trip
Dec: MVMCP trip

Full disclosure, we LOVE halloween and we go all out.

Last year:


And 2016:



Not sure what 2018 will bring, though we are thinking maybe Coco, mostly because I want hubby to dress like Ernesto de la Cruz!

Follow along on my planning if you are interested!

Next up, Feb 2018 plans.

 

[kcpinwdw]

Trip #1: Feb 21-25 2018

In 2017 I met up with my good friend from medical school who now lives in Florida, for the Princess 5K and a relaxing weekend. I booked a standard room at Beach Club but a couple months before our trip my travel agent asked us if we would move to Grand Floridian on Disney, as they were over booked... easy "Yes, Please!" Although I was a little sad to give up our walk to Epcot, given the rates at GF I couldn't pass up the opportunity to stay there at what was basically 60% off. We had a great trip, and when we left agreed that we would be back the following year, but we would run the 10K too, and bring our daughters to run the 5K with us.

Here we are, running fools. I texted my husband this photo and he made us into a meme.




So this year we are holding ourselves to that promise. Nikki and I are both bringing our 5-year old girls. Sylvie has run a 5K before, one when she was only 4, so I am sure she can do it.

Sylvie enjoying a Disney treat last month:




Hotel: My friend is DVC and has reserved us a one-bedroom villa at Copper Creek! I'm excited for the space, and Wilderness Lodge is my all around favorite resort. We spent one night in a Copper Creek studio on our December trip (extended our family trip a night due to flights) so I got a little taste of what is in store.

Arrival: Sylvie and I are flying United and planned to connect through Dulles (meh) to arrive around 11am on Wednesday. Yesterday I got the "your flight schedule has changed" email from United, and it was a complete rebooking. We leave a bit later and go through Newark instead, but arrive only about 20 min later, at 11:20am. Glad I'm not going through Dulles, we have the worst luck there. Fingers crossed the weather holds and we get in on time! Travel from VT in winter can be dicey. But we seem to handle the snow okay, especially the first flight out in the morning. Once on the way home from Mexico we got stuck in Dulles for several days due to a freak snowstorm... not so freaky this year given how much cold and snow the whole east coast has gotten. I never plan on much for arrival day because of weather and flights. I have FPs set for Magic Kingdom, since I am pretty sure that's what Sylvie will want to do when we arrive!

Sylvie's superpower is always making Ridiculous faces in photos. It is SO hard to take a picture of this kid! Here's a classic:


More to come!

 

[absolutmey]

Following along! I'll be at Princes and Dark Side too!

 

[kcpinwdw]

Following along! I'll be at Princes and Dark Side too!

Awesome!! Thanks for the follow!

 

[kcpinwdw]

Okay con't trip #1, Feb 21-25 copper creek.
Here's our schedule!

21st: arrive into MCO around 1130. ME to the resort. I made MK fast passes for the evening but no set plans!
FP #1: 3:15-4:15 SDMT
FP #2: 4:20-5:20 Haunted Mansion
FP #3: 5:20-6:20 Enchanted Tales
No dinner plans, we will play it by ear. If it's nice out maybe we will eat outside by the Lake at Geyser Point.

22nd: We will go to the EXPO in the morning to pick up a race bibs and show for our rundisney Merch. Im a Disney Dooney & Bourke nutcake but I am not sure I am in love with this years offering. We will see when I see them in person! I'll probably get the cross body regardless, as a memory of the event and for Sylvie's first runDisney event. Afternoon I have MK fast passes booked, with an early dinner at 1900 Park Fare! We will need to go to bed early as we need to get up before Dawn's Crack the next day.

FP #1: 12:50-1:50 Meet Rapunzel and Tiana
FP #2: 2:40-3:40Peter Pan's FLight
FP #3: 3:55-4:55 SDMT

Plan on wearing this matching shirts I made this day:



23rd: PRINCESS 5K. Up at 3, bus by 4 (or as late as possible). I have our costumes all made. Sylvie picked an "Enchanted" theme so she will be going as Giselle and I as Queen Narissa--- both translated into running clothes of course. Here's a sneak peek, sorry for the poor quality pic but my son took it:


We should be done with the running pretty early, by 9am probably. If we aren't too gross we will probably head straight to Epcot, or go back for showers. Celebratory breakfast at Akershus! We have Epcot FPs but we may just go back to rest.

FP #1: Frozen Ever After 11:20-12:20
FP #2: Disney Pals 12:30-1:30
FP #3: Nemo 1:30-2:30

Early to bed!

24th: PRINCESS 10K! We have Kids Nite Out coming to watch the girls during the run. Nikki and I will head out early. I am wearing a "Lilo" inspired running dress and she will be in a Stitch inspired outfit. You have to wait a tad for a picture! After the run we will head back to Copper Creek to shower and change, and then plan on bringing the kids to AK (if we can still walk).

FP #1: 12:45-1:45 FoP
FP #2: 2:30 Fot Lion King
FP #3: Safari 5:45-6:45 (We will try for right around sunset)

Dinner planned for Yak & Yeti at 4:15. I've eaten so many times as Tusker and Tiffins, but only once here, so I am happy to try it again.


25th: Check out day (WAAHHHH!). Our flight is late at night so we have all day, though. Plan on going to Hollywood Studios.

FP #1: 9:30-10:30 TSMM
FP #2: 10:45-11:45 Star Tours
FP #3: Tot (I am NOT going on this, but maybe Nikki wants to!)

 

[kcpinwdw]

Here's my Lilo dress, I have white long running shorts under it, and a light tutu as a petticoat. Not sure I will wear the Tutu. Can't really see it from this angle.




It fits like a big T-shirt, kind of, I wish it was a bit more fitted at the waist and it doesn't have pockets which I hate. I put in a pocket for my 5K dress to hold my cell phone and some cash. I don't think I can add one on this dress because of the material and seams. So I either add an armband (ugh) or a waist belt and then just immodestly hike up my dress when I need a photo

 

[kcpinwdw]

In two weeks I will be checking in to Copper Creek!

This is my first time in a one-bedroom villa, how are the pull-outs for sleeping on? I imagine they will be fine in such a new resort!

And has anyone heard anything about the paid "club level" type access at reunion station?

I've started packing already! Here's my packing list:
1) 5K outfit
2) 10K outfit
3) running shoes
4) sandals
5) bathing suits
6) three dressier outfits
7) five shorts/tee outfits
8) sunscreen
9) Coffee, filters, and disposable cups (there is nowhere to buy coffee at 3am!)
10) lots of sweatshirts for layering
11) PJs
12) toiletries
13) micro-med cabinet in case of infectious disease
14) room for souvenirs

 

[kcpinwdw]

I am adding a mini-trip report for our Feb Princess weekend!

We left Vermont at 6am and had smooth flights to Florida, arrive before noon. Sylvie took a little plane nap and was full of energy when we checked into Copper Creek. Our fav WL CM Kirk was there when we arrived, who remembered us from our recent big family reunion trip, and helped check us in. Our room was ready, one-bedroom up on the 7th floor, first door around the corners from the elevators so a VERY good location. We had a nice woods view of the villas, villa pool, and lake.

Here's our room:




And our view:


After we checked in, Sylvie and I went down to Geyser Point for a drink and a snack, and to relax. I LOVE this place! Here's my Sunshine Margarita.


Our friends checked in later that night and we unpacked, and had dinner at Whispering Canyon. The girls got along famously, and they definitely needed some Ketchup during dinner:

 

[kcpinwdw]

The next day is Thursday, and we plan to go to the Expo (which opens at noon). We have a relaxing morning, getting groceries to stock our fridge, and then a quick trip to the Character Warehouse to shop for some outlet souvenirs! After that, we head to the expo.

Here we are all together!


The girls:


Here is Sylvie as we enter to pic up our Bibs:


The expo took hours as the lines for everything were bananas! We left around 3 and went to MK. We were hoping to ride 7DMT but it was down. We were exhausted and left to go to our dinner at the Wave, and early to bed for the run in the morning. We were sad we missed our FP for 7DMT but the concierge helped by giving us another one to use later in the week.

Early to bed for all of us!

 

[kcpinwdw]

Friday morning is run day!

Up at 3:15 am, to get ourselves dressed. Made some coffee, woke the girls up last minute and got their outfits on. They were sleepy but good sports, and we were out of the room and on the bus before 4am. It was a crowded bus to the start!

Of course I forgot to get my daughter to pee before we left so our first stop was to the port-a-potties---- very interesting in the dark! Ugh!

Then we headed down to wait in our Corral. Here we are all ready to go:



It is a long wait from here until our start time, especially since we were starting near the back of the pack. Girls had fun with their light sticks but were pretty sleepy while we waited!



I think it was close to 6:30 by the time we got going. Luckily as soon as it was time to move both girls perked up!

Next up, some of our photo pass pics from the race.