Beware of Poachers and Look at the Little Gorillas! 3 trips in 1. NEW TR started 8/31/19**

[disneyAndi14]

Your food does look good!! I would love colossal King Crab! I adore seafood......when we go back up to Scotland we get fresh Langoustine and hand dived scallops from the local fisherman.......can’t get fresher.......so I can imagine your King Crab!!!

I’m not a huge dessert fan, but those do look nice.

And I’m so glad your sister stopped off for the pictures......they are sweet!!!

Thanks Carole, I was terrible with food pictures this trip. I think my back and Andi not always reminding me made a difference. The food was much better than my couple pictures. Great variety.
Here is a picture of the king crab we had at Christmas, this leg is next to a 2 liter bottle! Huge!!

I’m like you with the plastic Mardi Gras beads,it is a competition with the photo opportunities, I have to hit them all!

 

[schumigirl]

Trip Report Interruption!!!
We are going to Disney World again!!!
View attachment 382736
I found fair flight prices with Southwest for the March trip and booked!! We have never flown Southwest because they have a small presence here in Minneapolis. We fly out on 3/24 mid afternoon and arrive in Orlando at 9pm. I booked an express deal with Priceline for a 4 star hotel in the Disney area for only $70.00. I did this blindly and got The Sheraton Orlando Lake Buena Vista Resort. It looks decent for 1 night. We will take a Lyft there from the airport and basically just sleep.

I had booked an AP room only reservation at CSR standard view back in December. This is from 3/25-3/30. I got a great AP deal for this and I am glad I hadn’t canceled it yet. I also, like any good Disney veteran, picked FP on my 60 day window. I was in my bed at AKL, looking at Zebras, when I did this.
I got pretty decent ones. FoP, SDD, 7DMT at least once for each of these so I was happy.

We only have 2 ADR’s at this time, which is fine, since Ms. Andi is a picky vegetarian now!
I made one at MM for the vegetarian options and our usual lunch at BoG, that is it. Andi loves mushrooms so I thought the flatbread at MM for her?? Who knows!

I am so happy we are going now that I booked the airfare!! For those of you, who fly Southwest, is it important to add on the early bird booking? Andi wears headphones the whole flight so I don’t really care if I sit with her or not. I didn’t do it yet and probably won’t unless you all think I should.

Thank you Everyone for following along and letting me share my plans with you! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Fabulous news!!!

I’m so happy you get to visit in March too!!!

I’m sure you’ll enjoy it all the more after the weather you’ve been having.......all that sunshine awaits!!

 

[schumigirl]

Thanks Carole, I was terrible with food pictures this trip. I think my back and Andi not always reminding me made a difference. The food was much better than my couple pictures. Great variety.
Here is a picture of the king crab we had at Christmas, this leg is next to a 2 liter bottle! Huge!!
View attachment 382835
I’m like you with the plastic Mardi Gras beads,it is a competition with the photo opportunities, I have to hit them all!

Oh my goodness!!! That is a big one........

I would have to eat that if I saw it!!! Lush........Tom would love that too.....he’s a big fan of King Crab too.......

Lol......yes, bead and picture opportunities are so much fun!!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

The girafffes were my favourite when I stayed at AKL.

I agree, it was amazing how they would go down to the ground to rest!

Chilling in the hot tub sounds great, nice way to unwind after some park time.

It was one of the very few times I have enjoyed the pool amenities at the resorts.

Definitely a good choice! Nothing worse than not getting the value from a buffet.

For sure! That girl eats like a bird, I can’t really say much because I do as well and have my whole life, lol!

Everything looks yummy!

It was good, I tried to eat as much as I could. The flourless Mickey mini cake was so yummy!

Did Andi pick another park?

She went back to the resort to relax

I love this new shot. You two look great!

Thank you, it was a fun shot. I bet they keep it there at night during F&G

SE is such a classic!

It sure is, I love it!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

This sounds wonderful, I have only seen giraffes on the safari or in a zoo and always standing up. It would be fun to watch them go about their business for a while.

It was so fun to watch the giraffes. It is a process for these big animals to lay down.

My oldest DD is the same. When I've done longer trips we would rent a house off property for a week and just chill out by the private pool.

I think this started after school swimming, ugh! She use to swim at WDW when she was younger, not anymore!

I found Epcot bad in August too, worse than the other parks. I wonder if that's a common thing.

I agree, it was way slower than the other parks. I overall found every where worse this past trip.

Interesting, I had never heard of that one. I wonder if it's a permanent photo spot or just for the Festival of the Arts.

It is definitely new, I hope they keep it!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Caroline, the Tink lantern and Peter Pan pics are ADORBS!!!

I'm also glad you FINALLY got the big table you deserve!!!

Thank you, I was glad the pictures turned out decent!
I could not believe the booth we got, one extreme to the other haha!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Sorry it took me a while, but I'm finally caught up on your report!

So nice to see you here Meghan! I really enjoy all your wonderful comments! I know how busy school is so Thank you for joining in!

This makes me sad, too. Walt would be so disappointed about this, I'm sure. The cleanliness and level of service were such big things for him. I wondered about a shortage of staff, too

I hope it improves and doesn’t get worse!

I feel you! We haven't gotten nearly as much snow as you, at least not yet. But it's been chilly and messy, and I just want spring to come! I need to do a placement for school next year in the winter, and I'm trying to work out an internship somewhere down south so I don't have to go through another cold, slushy, gross winter again.

If I was young like you and N, I would definitely try different areas especially with warmer winters!

That's hilarious! I did notice your accent when we met, but I wasn't surprised by it knowing you're from Minnesota

When I first started my RN career in Minneapolis, patients would ask me if I was from Canada, lol! Even in Minneapolis, my northern Iron Range accent was new to them, haha! My husband is hilarious with his accent, he can really exaggerate it and he cracks everyone up!

That's such a good strategy.

I highly recommend making that call for cleaning, I just say mid morning and that has worked.

That's really unfortunate! My longest waits for FP always tend to be on Soarin', too.

Yes, lately our FP wait has been long here.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Your Festival of the Arts PP pics are so cute! I love the mermaid and pirate ones.

Your dinner at Cape May looks good too, but I'm not a big seafood fan so I don't think it would be worth it for me.

Thank you, it was fun finding the different photo shots.
Seafood is one of my favorites so I really enjoyed it!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Congrats on the March trip! I've only flown Southwest once so I'm not a big help. We didn't do the early check in but I checked in as soon as it was available and it worked fine for us.

Thank you, I am really excited now! I think just checking in at the 24 hour mark to get the boarding letter or number, will be just fine. Andi keeps headphones on the whole trip anyways!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I've been reading along and I'm finally commenting! Glad you found decent flights for March It's not easy lol. Maybe you'll get lots of snow at home while you're in Florida and you can laugh about missing a storm!

Love the PP picture. Steve and I did some of those festival pictures but didn't really "act" right so they don't look good We just look like people...........standing inside a picture frame.......................

Thank you Ariane! The flights sure were a challenge. Most were just awful times with 2 layovers and still high.
Southwest had the best times and the price was okay, certainly not a bargain. My husband said to me last night “Are we rich and I don’t know about it” oops!

You can do some photo opportunities next week!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Fabulous news!!!

I’m so happy you get to visit in March too!!!

I’m sure you’ll enjoy it all the more after the weather you’ve been having.......all that sunshine awaits!!

I am so excited. I sure hope the weather is awesomely hot and sunny!
The king crab were so delicious, very sweet and so good dipped in butter, yum!

 

[MeghanEmily]

When I first started my RN career in Minneapolis, patients would ask me if I was from Canada, lol! Even in Minneapolis, my northern Iron Range accent was new to them, haha! My husband is hilarious with his accent, he can really exaggerate it and he cracks everyone up!

That's hilarious! You'd probably blend right in with your Northern neighbors! Accents are funny. When I first moved here, it was only from the next province over, but I couldn't get over some of the differences. I had to ask a co-worker to repeat herself once, because I was sure she said she "bought a new coach," but it was a new couch, like a sofa.

How exciting that you have your March trip booked!! It will feel so nice to get away from the snow!

 

[Gina Starr]

I don’t know if I’ve commented yet to let you know I’m here. I’m used to bein more of a silent follower but I want to be a better participant so here I am!

 

[MinnieWebster]

Trip Report Interruption!!!
We are going to Disney World again!!!

YAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! So glad you were able to find flights!

For those of you, who fly Southwest, is it important to add on the early bird booking?

We almost always fly Southwest, unless it's not an option for our trip. We have never done the early bird check-in. I am usually able to be online ready to check-in right at 24 hours, when it opens, and have pretty good luck getting us higher boarding position (high B). We haven't had a flight yet that we've not been able to sit next to each other, although some flights we sit farther back on the plane than others...

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Yay for another trip!!

Why is Epcot security so much worse thab the other parks? It seems to be the only one that people consistently complain about. You'd think they'd be able to apply successful strategies from the other parks to make this better, too. It does make me more confident in our choice of an Epcot area resort with IG access.

 

[Tracy161]

I sure hope a trip is in your future!! Our dates are 8/17-8/26

Yay!!! Thank you! Assuming I'll go in August, my dates would definitely overlap

I bought this new waist pocket thing and I am using it next several trips. I really only need Andi’s epi-pen and my AP/Photo ID. I want to skip the security bag check lines from now on.

I've noticed lines have gotten SO long, this is a great idea. But I pack half my life in my parks bag, so I'm not sure I could pull this off Funny coming from a girl who willingly lives in a 650 square foot apartment that I can't downsize my parkbag as well

We are going to Disney World again!!!

I was in my bed at AKL, looking at Zebras, when I did this.

There is so much awesomeness in that sentence

 

[xlsm]

Andi won’t go in any “public” pool or hot tub

I used to work at a city pool and I didn't go into public pools for YEARS!! I will now if they're not terribly crowded, but I just don't think too hard about it, LOL

I love her sweatshirt

Aw, this is so cute!!

I love these special photo ops for the Festival!! I need to make it to this one sometime for sure

You guys look great in these!! We always end up looking like they're mugshots

 

[suse66]

I found fair flight prices with Southwest for the March trip and booked!! We have never flown Southwest because they have a small presence here in Minneapolis. We fly out on 3/24 mid afternoon and arrive in Orlando at 9pm. I booked an express deal with Priceline for a 4 star hotel in the Disney area for only $70.00. I did this blindly and got The Sheraton Orlando Lake Buena Vista Resort. It looks decent for 1 night. We will take a Lyft there from the airport and basically just sleep.

Awesome!! So great you guys are getting a March trip in! I am trying the mushroom flat bread on my trip so will be sure to tell you about it! Happy planning!

 

[disneyAndi14]

How exciting that you have your March trip booked!! It will feel so nice to get away from the snow!

I’m so happy now that I made the decision to just do it! Andi was cheering me on the whole time to just do it!!

I don’t know if I’ve commented yet to let you know I’m here. I’m used to bein more of a silent follower but I want to be a better participant so here I am!

Hi Gina, Welcome! Thank you for commenting! Glad to have you joining in!

YAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! So glad you were able to find flights!

It was ridiculous! We fly often in February and April and have never had problems getting decent prices. The main carriers in Minneapolis wanted $800.00 per person, crazy!

We almost always fly Southwest, unless it's not an option for our trip. We have never done the early bird check-in. I am usually able to be online ready to check-in right at 24 hours, when it opens, and have pretty good luck getting us higher boarding position (high B). We haven't had a flight yet that we've not been able to sit next to each other, although some flights we sit farther back on the plane than others...

Thank you for the info! I will check in right at the 24 hour mark. I can see if you have little ones the early bird would be important. Andi ignores me during the flight with her headphones on so no biggie!

Yay for another trip!!

Why is Epcot security so much worse thab the other parks? It seems to be the only one that people consistently complain about. You'd think they'd be able to apply successful strategies from the other parks to make this better, too. It does make me more confident in our choice of an Epcot area resort with IG access.

Thank you, I need to get away again our winter stinks! I hope our March improves!
Epcot is bad for lines at check in, the IG entrance is so nice! I wonder if they cut some of the staff, it seemed bad in all the parks this past trip. AK was the best.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Yay!!! Thank you! Assuming I'll go in August, my dates would definitely overlap

That would be awesome, we could enjoy our love of the PM together!!

I've noticed lines have gotten SO long, this is a great idea. But I pack half my life in my parks bag, so I'm not sure I could pull this off Funny coming from a girl who willingly lives in a 650 square foot apartment that I can't downsize my parkbag as well

It will be hard for me not to have my backpack. I might give it a try with this waist belt thing, maybe the security will improve over the next few months, that would be a plus

There is so much awesomeness in that sentence

It was fun to making FP for another trip while enjoying a current trip! I’m really glad I went ahead and booked the flights. My CSR stay was a great price so this made it easier,

Awesome!! So great you guys are getting a March trip in! I am trying the mushroom flat bread on my trip so will be sure to tell you about it! Happy planning!

Thank you Susan! I am really excited to try out CSR and just enjoy being on actual ground that is not snow covered.
I will be reading your TR for sure!