Back to POP April 2015 - 7 Days of Wonderment!

[kaetra]

You wouldn't think getting a $50 Disney Gift Card for Christmas would be a super-huge deal, but when your husband writes on it "For Disney World" - it's just about the best gift I could ever get. The card was his way of telling me it's time to book another family trip and it definitely brought the joy-tears on, much to his delight!

Our Family - Traci, Brad & Kythe


After humming and hawing about staying offsite for the first time ever, I decided in the end that I wanted 1 more trip with the nucleus family "In The Bubble". I booked today! Yay!!!

I've never done Disney in Spring before, and I am super excited that this (possibly last) trip will encompass my actual Birthday. So, Happy Christmas and Happy Birthday to me!!

We'll be going for 6 nights, 7 days of wonderment and staying at POP. I would have loved French Quarter again, but it was simply out of reach for our budget. Even POR was not available for the special "Spring Deal" they had going, so back to POP it is!

Our last trip was just as paper fast passes were being eliminated. We are commandos, so I am a bit nervous about using FP+!!! However!! I am going to stay positive and give it a chance. I have consulted the crowd calendar carefully and am making it a big tool in my day planning, so hopefully everything will be OK.

I've got my reservation at my FAVORITE restaurant Les Chefs for my actual Birthday dinner and I'm very much looking forward to celebrating another year of a happy life at the Happiest Place on Earth.

 

[kaetra]

As I begin making my list of must-do things, I am torn about the ride Dinosaur. My kid LOVES that I am terrified of Dinosaur and of course would be heartbroken if we didn't go. But here's the thing - guess which person is me in this photo?


Can you spot me?

On Ellen the other day, they had one of those life size velocoraptor puppet things come out and interact with the audience. Even that made my heart jump, and it was on the TV for heaven's sake.

Yeah. So, Dinosaur - I don't think so.

 

[kaetra]

Something I've ALWAYS wanted to do, but have never done before is to get matching family t-shirts. Wish Fulfilled!!

I ordered them today from Etsy, and they weren't even that expensive. Here's the example:

 

[kaetra]

I booked Southwest flights today, didn't get a fantastic deal but it's not terrible. What I did get - nonstop flights with an EARLY morning arrival and a LATE evening departure. Perfect!

I also reserved our rental car today. Our last trip we got a rental car for the first time ever, and I swore I'd never go without one again!

OFFICIAL Park Schedule -

• Sat 4/18 - Must start with Magic Kingdom
• Sun 4/19 - Epcot and Chefs De France Birthday Dinner ADR
• Mon 4/20 - Animal Kingdom
• Tue 4/21 - Magic Kingdom - Crystal Palace Breakfast ADR
• Wed 4/22 - Epcot
• Thu 4/23 - Magic Kingdom - Be Our Guest Lunch ADR
  
• Fri 4/24 - Animal Kingdom OR Magic Kingdom

What's that? No Hollywood Studios you say? That's right. Because Hollywood Studios sucks.

 

[kaetra]

Here is my ongoing list of must-do's by park (omitting big ride attractions as those are a given)

Magic Kingdom
ROPE DROP SHOW (I swear we are gonna MAKE it this time!)
A Pirate's Adventure Treasure Hunt
Sorcerers of Magic Kingdom game
Rapunzel's Toilet
Pineapple float
Be Our Guest lunch
Try the party line phones
Get a picture of the paw prints in front of Tony's
Go into Sir Mickey's to see the Giant peeking in
Talking Mickey (maybe)
Astro Orbiter (for the view)
Dumbo play area and Dumbo (we haven't done Dumbo since 2010)
Circus area sprinklers

Epcot
Flower & Garden treats!
Agent P's Adventure
Sum of all Thrills
America Pavilion Movie (haven't seen it yet)
Three Amigos
Canada garden
French bakery

Animal Kingdom
Pangani/Maharaja treks
Flights of Wonder
Festival of the Lion King
Tea hut
Wilderness Explorers

Miscellaneous
Quick tour of Art of Animation shops, lobby, etc.

Things we will likely avoid
Hollywood Studios
Downtown Disney
Most character greets (except Pluto)
Storytime with Belle
Jungle Cruise (it's closed anyway)
Stitch
Tough to be a Bug

 

[Elizhodge13]

All looks good and fun. Though I want to warn you that Maelstrom at Epcot no longer exists. They are turning it into a Frozen themed ride. Have a great trip!

 

[kaetra]

All looks good and fun. Though I want to warn you that Maelstrom at Epcot no longer exists. They are turning it into a Frozen themed ride. Have a great trip!

Thanks for the tip! Very good to know!! Good for them, it's going to be a great addition to the Norway area!

 

[kaetra]

"Why might this be your last trip?" someone asked me. Well, there are a couple reasons:

1. The kid is getting older and we all want to start doing different things. She still loves Disney World, but there's a whole other world out there to explore, too. I'm very grateful that we got to spend the lion's share of our vacations in Disney World over the last 5 years while our daughter was very young, and those times were truly magical.
2. We love to ride rides. Sure, we love the atmosphere, cleanliness and attention to detail. However for our family the bottom line is the attractions. If we can't have a fair number of goes on the attractions without waiting in line for hours, then it's not a good value to us. This trip will be the official TEST for our family of FP+. If it doesn't suit us then we will look for different options for future vacations. I truly hope it works out!
   

 

[ursalita]

Hi! Our trip overlaps yours, we're going to be there April 21-27. We wanted to go for your dates but the Southwest flights we wanted were booked or too much $$. I'm happy the way it worked out.

We've never ridden Dinosaur, it's one of our must-do's this trip. I hope it's not too scary.

Those matching shirts are really cute.

I totally relate to your "last trip" reasoning. I said that last time but we're going back so I won't say that again. But I really want to do other things as a family that the kids will appreciate now that they're older. We're not big ride lovers so that's not an issue for us. There are tons of great parks that have a bunch of thrill rides. Have you guys done Universal Studios?

 

[kaetra]

There are tons of great parks that have a bunch of thrill rides. Have you guys done Universal Studios?

Hi and thanks for reading!!

We have not been yet, but we all really want to go. I started planning this trip as a split stay between WDW and Universal. As I was planning it my daughter "confessed" that she wanted to just do all-Disney one more time so she "can be a little kid again" (she's 12 LOL)! I had even looked at getting a condo, there's some really good deals and nice places out there! Next time for sure, we'll get a condo and go to "that other place" and check out some new adventures!

Europe is calling our name too, we always wanted to go there but wanted to wait until the kid was older. I will definitely be planning a London/Paris trip within the next couple years!

I see you went to Wilderness Lodge in October 2013, just before they stopped FP-. We had a POFQ trip in November 2013 and got to use both FP- AND FP+ and it was great! I seriously thought that one would be our last trip until hubby surprised me with my Christmas "present" this year. So never say never I guess

 

[kaetra]

Mickey Mail!
Got our first piece of Mickey Mail today! The "INCREDIBLE Vacation" booklet! It's pretty cool. I thought it would have an upgrade offer for buying designer Magic Bands or something, but it didn't. It is pretty amazing though that they add your family's name and other custom info regarding your plans to the booklet.

I totally can see how the booklet would help Disney newbies. And for repeat customers it's a nice treat.

HERE WE COME!!!!

 

[kaetra]

Caribbean Beach Upgrade?
I called Reservations last night to see if going through phone reservations would work to get me into POFQ, since it was blacked out on web reservations when I booked.

As you can see by my signature, we have been to POP quite a few times already, so we are kind of wanting an upgrade - especially since we may actually be spending more time at the resort this time around than in past years. POFQ was a complete no-go. Just nothing available. POR had a King/Daybed room - but it would have added almost $100 PER NIGHT to our room cost. However the agent said they did have space in CBR and it would add only about $25 per night to our room. It sounded like a pretty good deal for a Moderate to me, but we've never been to CBR before.

So, I think it's time to start researching CBR a bit to see if maybe it's worth a shot. Someone said it used to be a Value resort years ago, so at this point I'm not sure if it's really an "upgrade".

 

[kaetra]

Custom T's
Here they are, our official custom T's! The kid wanted a big bow, so I went with the small one...

 

[Anitsirk24]

Following along! I love those t-shirts, I think I may check out etsy for some shirts. I so want to get my DD and I matching shirts for our trip in May.

 

[kaetra]

Caribbean Beach Upgrade - Nah
After reading up on CBR here and Tripadvisor, I think I'm going to pass. The décor looks pretty bland to me, and not very Disney-esque. Also we are avid non-smokers and I'm getting the impression that this is a very popular resort for the smoking crowd. Maybe I'll look into Coronado Springs a bit. (Or maybe I'll just be happy going back "home" to POP!)

 

[kaetra]

Following along! I love those t-shirts, I think I may check out etsy for some shirts. I so want to get my DD and I matching shirts for our trip in May.

Etsy really has so many choices for custom shirts! People are very crafty.

 

[kaetra]

2nd piece of Mickey Mail arrived today!

Just a tiny pamphlet reminding me about FP+ and how great it is.

Let the Expectation Adjustments begin!

 

[kaetra]

Finally finishing November 2013 Trip Report

I've known for some time that I hadn't finished my last TR! So last night I buckled down and churned out mostly a barebones narrative of all the nice photos I got. It was SO much fun reliving those memories and a great way to get in the spirit during planning the next trip! Kythe remembered many more details than I did, not surprisingly. I only have 1 more day left to finish, but it was a short day due to an early-ish flight back home. Time to work on the few pics I have left, cropping and reducing!

 

[kaetra]

I just read that they may once again be doing the Sword in the Stone ceremonies (MK's mini-show where they choose someone to pull the sword from the stone).

That is exciting news! We will definitely try to head to that area just after rope drop on one of our MK days to see if we can catch it.

 

[kaetra]

Photo Planning! Memory Maker or no?
I am seriously considering getting the Memory Maker this time around. Husband has an SLR camera, takes great photos and always brings it to Florida - but then refuses to "lug it around" in the parks. My Nikon point and shoot is compact and very handy, and it actually takes really good pics as long as you have lots of light. It's nearly useless in lower light conditions though.

Memory Maker is SOOO expensive!! ($169!!) I can't decide. Magic shots are cute, but I don't know if it's worth it, especially since I'm not crazy about having my own picture taken. Let's face it, none of us look our best at Disney World.

(Disney World Rule #1 - Don't look in the mirror!)

Hmmm... maybe I'll show husband the price of Memory Maker and tell him I'm buying it because he never takes his SLR to the parks. Then MAYBE he will commit to bringing the SLR slightly more often than never.