At Least We Are All Tall Enough For Barnstormer! A June 2017 PTR...updated 6/1

[ArielSRL]

SO many ifs on that one. I think back to Mine Train and how late that opening was from the projected date...

I missed that debacle but was smack dab in the middle of the ROL one last year!

Admittedly AK is one of my favorite parks, especially since HS is basically totally under construction right now. But the evenings there are gorgeous! The greenery makes it nice and cool and the colors from the sunset are just lovely.

We did one night last year and almost closed down the park at 11pm. It was quiet and beautiful! I will keep my plans fluid for if we want to head back there another night.

Tell me more...

Last year on the Cast member site, when ROL was supposed to debut, there was a Flame Tree package. Alas...haven't seen hide nor hair of it this year. And it would've fit with our plans. Boo hoo!

I know! I have never liked that hypocrisy. We're expected to know where and when we want to eat 6 months in advance, but then two weeks from your vacation Disney changes times, events, closes rides. It's wild!

This, exactly!

Thanks for stopping over and replying!

 

[MissMaryQC]

Thanks for stopping over and replying!

I have totally been following long, just lurking. When we were cancelling our trip, and talking about moving and working out logistics and, and, and. I just couldn't make it on here for more than a few minutes; never enough time to actually converse! This is much more fun!

 

[katriscari]

I am following along! I just caught up on all of your plans! They look awesome! I will have to check out red bubble & hot topic for shirts. I usually only shop on Etsy. I wish were were able to have a reasonable driving distance from Ohio. 16 hours, no thanks! If we could do it in 8-10 I would totally look into it. Can't wait for more of your plans! You are so organized!!

 

[ArielSRL]

I am following along! I just caught up on all of your plans! They look awesome! I will have to check out red bubble & hot topic for shirts. I usually only shop on Etsy. I wish were were able to have a reasonable driving distance from Ohio. 16 hours, no thanks! If we could do it in 8-10 I would totally look into it. Can't wait for more of your plans! You are so organized!!

Thank you so much for joining in! Yes, RedBubble and Hot Topic have really good Disney shirts and tanks! I shop on Etsy occasionally, as well.

I know what you mean about the drive. With young kids, its so much easier to drive because you can bring whatever you need. Flying is just a tad more difficult, I'm sure. And the process to fly from here is almost as long as the drive itself!

Thank you for the organization compliment. I am kind of an organization freak...lol. And it really is fun and passes the time. However, I have learned I have to be really flexible about the plans once we are there!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Hello! I am following along. I just found your trip report. Your boys are so cute! And we have stayed at Wilderness Lodge twice now, and we love it there! We are seriously thinking of booking Wilderness Lodge again for our September trip.

Tues 6/6 (MK rope drop, midday break, back for evening) ~ BOG lunch 11/11:30am, WCC dinner 5pm

Wed 6/7 (Epcot rope drop, midday break, back for evening) ~ Les Halles later breakfast, Via Napoli dinner 6:30/7pm,

We love Via Napoli! Very good! It did seem to take a really long time for basically a pizza place.

Thank you so much for the input. My boys usually get up around 7 or 7:30. Even if they go to bed late.

Ugh, my girls are the same. No matter what, they are up by 7-7:30. EXCEPT at Disney. All of a sudden they like to sleep late! Which I know is because they are tired. But still! Really?!?

. I just need to make sure we stick to the midday break schedule so we get that rest time in.

This is a MUST!!! I remember our first trip. DH kept saying, that we don't really need to, that everyone was doing ok. I had to keep reminding him that this is basically a marathon vacation. We needed to pace ourselves!

but the thing I'm most annoyed about is it appears they took the crab cake off the menu and that's what I planned to order! I am not a BBQ fan at all, and because we took Boathouse off the schedule, I was really looking forward to the crab cake at WCC.

Have you seen the new bar/restaurant that opened at Wilderness Lodge? They have a crab cake sandwich on the menu! Wonder if that its why they took it off the menu at WC.

On another note, I spent one day last week just planning out my adult beverages for our AK day. I printed out menus and looked at maps and even started a touring plan, all so I could plan when and what I want to drink! Lol.

I love this!

For our break, I had planned some swimming (30 minutes to an hour) and some resting. DH is resistant to the swimming part because he says that isn't restful. Whatevs. I had planned to let the boys play while I had a beverage from the Trout Pass Pool Bar and I thought that sounded fairly restful.

We left a note from Tinkerbell on our first trip. And Tink drew up the guidelines for what rest time was. It helped coming from a Disney "professional", not MOM!

So, if I stick with one day and they don't go to the tiered FP, this is what I plan to try for whenever they release those FP:
Na'vi River Journey for all of us

I am very curious about this. I wonder how they will structure the fast passes. This will be the first BIG set of rides to roll out with the Fast Pass in place. We are planning on going to Disney is September, so hopefully things will slow down just a little by then for Animal Kingdom but it will all be interesting to see how it works out.

 

[ArielSRL]

Hello! I am following along. I just found your trip report. Your boys are so cute!

Thank you so much!

And we have stayed at Wilderness Lodge twice now, and we love it there! We are seriously thinking of booking Wilderness Lodge again for our September trip.

Good to hear! I haven't heard a bad thing yet!

We love Via Napoli! Very good! It did seem to take a really long time for basically a pizza place.

Good to know as we will be trying to see Illuminations after.

EXCEPT at Disney. All of a sudden they like to sleep late! Which I know is because they are tired. But still! Really?!?

We are definitely going to have to play it by ear.

We needed to pace ourselves!

So, so true!

Have you seen the new bar/restaurant that opened at Wilderness Lodge? They have a crab cake sandwich on the menu! Wonder if that its why they took it off the menu at WC.

I did see that and yes, that's what I'm ordering!

We left a note from Tinkerbell on our first trip. And Tink drew up the guidelines for what rest time was. It helped coming from a Disney "professional", not MOM!

That's a good idea.

I am very curious about this. I wonder how they will structure the fast passes. This will be the first BIG set of rides to roll out with the Fast Pass in place. We are planning on going to Disney is September, so hopefully things will slow down just a little by then for Animal Kingdom but it will all be interesting to see how it works out.

Yep, it's all a big guess right now. I figure if it ends up being tiered, we will rope drop the boat ride, instead of the Safari.

Thanks again for joining in!

 

[AZMermaid]

I'm with you... I'm conflicted between being excited to see Pandora and freaking out about the crowds. We have planned MK on 6/9, AK on 6/10- using EMH at both. I can't decide if it'd be better to switch them.

 

[ArielSRL]

I'm with you... I'm conflicted between being excited to see Pandora and freaking out about the crowds. We have planned MK on 6/9, AK on 6/10- using EMH at both. I can't decide if it'd be better to switch them.

It's really hard to know what to do, isn't it? It's such a big guessing game right now. I was thinking of switching Thurs AK with Fri MK but then once they announced Pandora I decided I did not want to be at AK on a weekend because of the locals.

 

[AZMermaid]

This just sparked me to reserve the Tusker House breakfast ROL package for Friday too. Now we are covered and can switch our plans as reports come out and hours are finalized. I feel slightly guilty holding two reservations.... but I'll make someone's day when I cancel, right?!

 

[ArielSRL]

This just sparked me to reserve the Tusker House breakfast ROL package for Friday too. Now we are covered and can switch our plans as reports come out and hours are finalized. I feel slightly guilty holding two reservations.... but I'll make someone's day when I cancel, right?!

I do not begrudge you for those two ressies. I had my Thurs and Fri ones for both days and just dropped the ones I didn't need when they announced Pandora and I finally decided what on which day. I also have a TH ROL BF ressie that I may end up dropping if I go the FP route but I probably won't drop it until all the info on Pandora FPs comes out. Oh and I have two Beaches & Cream ADRs bc I'm waiting on Star Wars dessert party dates and those probably won't be announced until May!

 

[AZMermaid]

Or you can go to Beaches and Cream twice- yum! Lol

 

[ArielSRL]

Initial Touring Plans: Sunday, June 4 - MK Day 1 (TAKE TWO)

Hello, all! I'm back! Sorry it has been awhile since I posted an update. I actually do have stuff to tell you, I just haven't had a minute to sit down and type out a somewhat lengthy post. Well, today just so happens to be a Teacher Workday...yes, you got that right - no President's Day off for me. But we only ended up having 2 meetings scheduled and I don't have a ton of stuff to do...so I worked some on my touring plans and figured I'd post an update!

First off, last I posted was when Pandora was officially announced. Well, Disney wasn't done and within a day or two, they announced ROL...which has since debuted. They also extended hours at AK to 10pm, though I think its a good possibility they will extend again, but that may not be until mid-May. The reasoning behind me thinking that is they only have one ROL show scheduled for our days (at 9:15). I'm thinking they will want to do another show around 10:30. So they may (or may not) extend to 10:30/11pm. I guess we shall see.

In any case, I went ahead and booked a Tusker House breakfast with ROL dining package as a precaution. I really just want to book a FP for it because I really had only planned on one TS most days and I prefer Sanaa on our AK day. However, I'll keep the ADR until after everything shakes out after they release Pandora FPs, and we will go from there.

Also I went ahead and finally officially decided on Thursday as our AK day and Friday as our MK day. AK is going to be very busy but I think weekends will be even busier with locals coming over. Therefore, I cancelled some duplicate ADRs I was holding on those two days. I'm really excited to see and experience Pandora but y'all...I am very scared of the crowds!

Moving on, we reached a milestone for our trip: I did our taxes last week and submitted them online. Why is that a milestone for our trip, you ask? Well, because that is how we are paying for it...lol. So, once I receive the money, I'll pass a portion of it to my friend who we rented the points from, I'll put some back into savings (that I borrowed to buy our tickets last July), and I'll purchase some Disney gift cards for our food budget. I'll need to book our stroller, as well. Some will go for our Memory Maker but I am doing a share with some other folks, so it won't be as much as I originally planned on. And, eventually, hopefully, purchase tickets for the Star Wars dessert party.

One more adjustment in our plans: Roaring Fork at WL closed for refurb and the newest rumor is they won't open back up til mid-June, so more than likely, we will have to try Geyser Point (the new WL eatery). The place looks beautiful and the most of the food sounds good, albeit different. I would just prefer they had both available so we could pick and choose. Regardless, we will deal.

Alright, I think that is all that I wanted to post about in this update except for the modified Day 1 touring plan. Unless I think of more later, and I guess if I do, I'll add it to the next update...lol.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I will prebook 7DMT for me and Pooh for all the boys. After I scan at 7DMT, I can go on and see if I can book a 4th for me for Pooh to ride with them.

Oh and yes, I did google how to take a screen shot again this year (for those who remember that I also did it for last year's PTR) because I always forget how to do it....lol.








In case it isn't obvious (and it probably isn't because you guys don't have my touring plan memorized...lol) I moved the order of stuff around in the first part of the day. There truly is no reason to do Aladdin first, other than to appease my children and I decided that they will just have to be okay with doing it fourth. I also added in a visit to The Main Street Bakery for some goodies before our midday break.

Other than that, it is pretty much the same. I'm fairly certain hours will be extended (probably til 11pm) with Happily Ever After moving to 10pm so the plan goes past 9 (the current hours). And I guess we shall see if the opening gets to moved to 8. I'm kind of hoping not...but we will figure it out if it does.

Thanks for reading!

Up next: Double Digit Dance Time

 

[Raeven]

We plan to try Geyser Point too hope it's good! I'll let you know what I think.

Taxes are great A portion of ours is for Disney too.

 

[AZMermaid]

If opening doesn't change... we will see you at Jungle Cruise! How funny would it be if we are on the same boat! If opening moves to 8... I don't think we'll get there till 8:30 or so cuz we have a 7AM Chef Mickey.

Bummer about working. I took the kids to diamondbacks fan fest but it was not awesome. They were complaining it was hot. I'm
Like oh boy.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

It seems like Disney hasn't decided what hours will be for Animal Kingdom. they mostly seem to be early closing still?!? It's kind of strange. I am waiting for them to release hours for September of this year. Not sure when that will be.

And if it make you feel any better, I was the only one in my family that had to work today. Blah!

So, I have never actually used touring.com for actual touring plans. Do you find that you guys stick to them?

 

[ArielSRL]

We plan to try Geyser Point too hope it's good! I'll let you know what I think.

Taxes are great A portion of ours is for Disney too.

Thank you! I will look forward to your review! And yes, yay to tax refunds!!

If opening doesn't change... we will see you at Jungle Cruise! How funny would it be if we are on the same boat! If opening moves to 8... I don't think we'll get there till 8:30 or so cuz we have a 7AM Chef Mickey.

Yay! A JC DIS meet up! And yeh, if it is an 8am opening, I don't know if we will be there right at 8 either. We'll see how it goes.

Bummer about working. I took the kids to diamondbacks fan fest but it was not awesome. They were complaining it was hot.

Thanks. Yeh it was 75 here in GA...beautiful spring weather....in winter...lol.

It seems like Disney hasn't decided what hours will be for Animal Kingdom. they mostly seem to be early closing still?!? It's kind of strange. I am waiting for them to release hours for September of this year. Not sure when that will be.

They extended to 10 for June but I don't know past that. I guess they didn't release ROL packages past June, yet?

And if it make you feel any better, I was the only one in my family that had to work today. Blah!

Boo! Hiss!

So, I have never actually used touring.com for actual touring plans. Do you find that you guys stick to them?

I've only used them for one trip before and we didn't really stick to them but that's bc my dad refused to get up on time. So it screwed my whole plan up each day. I'll see how it goes this time but there is the ability to change the plan in park on the app and it will use real time data about the parks to update the plan, so I'm going to try to use that resource. I'll let ya know in the TR how it goes...lol.

 

[ariane37]

Plans look good! I haven't even looked at hours for May yet I do all these things so half-a@# when the kids won't be with us lol! But I expect every month to change at this point except Feb! For our March trip AK closes at 8:30 with ROL at 8:45, I guess that will probably stay the same since they're apparently sticking with one show a night until closer to Easter. So after mid-April anything goes with AK hours!
Stinks you had to work today, teachers here had off. Last Friday the kids had a half day but after they dismissed the teachers had "teacher enrichment" so worked all day. Same thing the Fri. before MLK day last month.

 

[ArielSRL]

I haven't even looked at hours for May yet I do all these things so half-a@# when the kids won't be with us lol!

Well, you also just had a (training) trip and you have another trip before your May one....so I can understand...one trip at a time, right? And like you mentioned, with an adults only trip (and with going a few times a year), you can certainly be more flexible.

Stinks you had to work today, teachers here had off.

Yeh, it was annoying, however, bc the workload was light, I did get some trip and PTR stuff done, along with a break from my boys...lol. We had Friday, Feb 10th off because it was a built in snow day that we did not use, and I was actually off that day. Not sure why they didn't just schedule that for President's Day, but okay. We also have another one on March 10th and with the weather how it has been, I doubt we get any snow before then (or at all this year). But, I will say, it actually snows in March here quite a bit, relatively speaking...so we'll see. We also have one on the Friday (3/31) before Spring Break...so that will be nice to have off. Not that we are going anywhere. We were supposed to visit friends in Pensacola but my DH can't get off (too many people requested it already) so unless I want to take the boys myself, we will be doing a staycation!

 

[ariane37]

I'm glad you wrote that about 3/10- reminded me my boys are off that day too for a Superindendants conference. Forgot to put it on my calendar

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

But I expect every month to change at this point except Feb! For our March trip AK closes at 8:30 with ROL at 8:45, I guess that will probably stay the same since they're apparently sticking with one show a night until closer to Easter.

That seems strange.. The show starts after the park closes?