Birthday Adventure in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Sept/Oct 2019 Adults Only PTR Update 9/15!

[Gina Starr]

Sorry about your changes in plans but since POFQ is home I think it will be worth the change!

We of course wish we still had the longer trip but other than that, all the changes worked in our favor!

 

[Gina Starr]

*I wrote this Tuesday and never got around to posting it. Work has been crazy and still dealing with tooth issues!

Today was FastPass Day and it was a success, apparently. I was asleep. I may have complained about being the only one who makes decisions and does the planning so Donnie offered to be in charge of FP for this trip. He said it took 45 minutes to get everything for a four day trip! So here’s the plans:

Day 1
Check in to POFQ
Go to Disney Springs to stock up on Erin McKenna goodies
5:40-6:40 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
6:50-7:50 Haunted Mansion
7:55-8:55 Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Watch Happily Ever After

Day 2
6 AM EMH for Galaxy’s Edge
9:40-10:40 Toy Story Mania!
11:00-11:15 For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
12:10-12:25 Voyage of the Little Mermaid
See Lightning McQueens Racing Academy at some point

Day 3
9:20-10:20 Soarin’ Around the World
10:30-11:30 Journey Into Imagination with Figment
11:50-12:50 Spaceship Earth
Explore Food and Wine

Day 4
9:20-10:20 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
10:20-11:20 Jungle Cruise
11:25-12:25 Splash Mountain
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

Day 5
Check out, cry, drive home

We don’t currently have plans for AK but we have both been craving Satu’li and Nomad Lounge and I want to check out the animation academy and see Kevin so we might hop to AK one day. And I REALLY need to call to move our MNSSHP date. I don’t think there’s anything else planning related we have to do. We still have to work on our MNSSHP “costumes” which I already bought our shirts for. I have to find some fur for Donnie’s shirt, ears for him, and some sort of feather apparatus for my head. If you don’t remember what I said we are going as, try and figure it out from those clues! We are officially going to Disney next month! Of course, it’s the beginning of August and we leave at the end of September but still! I will be sure to come back with random ramblings soon!​

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Glad your FP day went well!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Congrats on securing your FPs

Your plans sound great...looking forward to seeing your pics of the F&W festival

 

[Gina Starr]

46 Days!!

Galaxy’s Edge

Reservations came out while we were at work and we didn’t find out for a good hour or two. We both follow tons of Disney people and a few Disney news sites on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter but it was busy at work so we weren’t paying attention. We were still able to snag reservations!

So at first Donnie said just get Oga’s. He said he would do the light saber or the droid in January. We had the Millennium Falcon “waiting” page forever but we finally tried a different link and snagged an Oga’s reservation! I was hoping for one around lunch time. First we got one for I think 6:45 but we managed to push it up a few times and landed on 4:10. Then Donnie said let’s just see what times are available for Savi’s Workshop and there was still several available so we grabbed one for 1:00. We keep trying to push up Oga’s a little earlier but no luck so far. Either way, we are excited! I just hope the drinks are safe for me. I would definitely go with the non-alcoholic options so I doubt there will be any gluten in them but you can never be too sure!


(Thought I would post some more throwback photos. I LOVED Eureeka’s Castle!)

Food and Wine

We originally were going to have two days at F&W but now it’s just one. And I’m really thinking more like a half day. I purposely chose our Epcot day to not be on a weekend to avoid crowds and Donnie just realized last night that it’s the day of the last Illuminations. We don’t like Illuminations (sorry!) so we don’t care to see it but that just means it’s gonna be crazy busy at night. So hopefully we can eat everything we want before it gets too bad.

I originally thought the Eat to the Beat band was someone I never heard of but I just double checked and it’s Sugar Ray soooo we might have to stick around for that and deal with the crowds. Speaking of Eat to the Beat, BBMak is going to be there in November! Donnie doesn’t even know who they are and he said we should go back to see them. If you are like Donnie and have no idea who I am talking about, they are some British pop band that showed up on a Disney Channel show in the late 90s, early 2000s and I became obsessed with them! I listened to their cd everyday and I liked them almost as much as I liked *NSYNC! Oh well, Sugar Ray is cool too. We watched Mark McGrath on Celebrity Big Brother last year so it would be cool to see him in person.

As for the food, being gluten free means I don’t have as many choices and I have a few things I want to try but I will have to make a list of must dos.


(Throwback Land postcard)

MNSSHP

I STILL have to call Disney and see if they can switch our date. I honestly hate calling anywhere. My aunt and uncle sent us an anniversary present over 2 weeks ago and we still haven’t called. They aren’t text or email people so we have to call. We have to call our internet company too. We made a plan than Donnie was going to call my aunt and uncle and I was going to call Disney and our internet company this weekend but it hasn’t happened.... We talk on the phone 8 hours a day at work, we do not want to talk on the phone outside of work! (Edited after I wrote this: we called two places! And one of them was Disney! Yay, we got our tickets moved!)

Anyways, I got a few more items needed for our costumes at the Hobby Lobby that just opened. Donnie’s costume requires ears and I knew he would hate wearing a headband. He doesn’t like sunglasses cause he doesn’t like things behind his ears so I suggested putting the ears on a hat and he thinks I’m a genius! Now I have to make the ears and attach them to a hat.... I’m not a sewer but I did just buy a hot glue gun!

I can’t wait to read reviews and watch vlogs from the party. I really want to get my game plan ready. I think our goals are: one meet and greet (hopefully Jack and Sally), fireworks, parade, stage show, trick or treating, a few special treats, and ride the rides with overlays. When they first announced the party they said there would be a Peoplemover overlay but any new post about it says nothing about the Peoplemover so hopefully that’s still planned! Also, unsure if I should get the allergy bag/tokens for trick or treating or not. I saw the treats they give with the allergy tokens and I don’t love them. And I can eat things like Reese’s cups, M&Ms, Hershey bars, etc. So I considered getting the regular stuff and just picking out what I can eat and Donnie can eat the rest.

Hope you guys have a great rest of the week!


(Miss Piggy fountain! Yes, my sister is wearing a Kool cigarette hat. Thank goodness my parents stopped smoking years ago!) ​

 

[Gina Starr]

Glad your FP day went well!

Thanks!

Congrats on securing your FPs

Your plans sound great...looking forward to seeing your pics of the F&W festival

Thank you!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Looks like everything is coming together! Probably best that you couldn't get on for the SWGE reservations right away because it was a bear trying to get through!

I am confused about the people mover too! It was definitely included in the first reports about the party and now nothing! So strange

BBMak sounds SUPER familiar. I'm going to have to look them up! *update* I definitely used to listen to them! That took me back!!

 

[Newsies]

The FP+ look amazing!!! Great job, guys!!!

So at first Donnie said just get Oga’s. He said he would do the light saber or the droid in January. We had the Millennium Falcon “waiting” page forever but we finally tried a different link and snagged an Oga’s reservation! I was hoping for one around lunch time. First we got one for I think 6:45 but we managed to push it up a few times and landed on 4:10. Then Donnie said let’s just see what times are available for Savi’s Workshop and there was still several available so we grabbed one for 1:00. We keep trying to push up Oga’s a little earlier but no luck so far. Either way, we are excited! I just hope the drinks are safe for me. I would definitely go with the non-alcoholic options so I doubt there will be any gluten in them but you can never be too sure!

WOO!!!! I'm SO happy you guys were able to snag reservations, that's awesome! I can't wait for you guys to see SWGE!

I originally thought the Eat to the Beat band was someone I never heard of but I just double checked and it’s Sugar Ray soooo we might have to stick around for that and deal with the crowds.

When I did my DCP, I was in Disney for the ENTIRETY of the F&WF and the only EttB performance I saw was Sugar Ray. Then Mark McGrath came through my FP+ line at PPF one night and he had one of his daughters with him and he took his driver's license out of his wallet and leaned in like he was about to tell me some secret and he was like "Listen, my name is Mark, I'm a performer during the Eat to the Beat festival, I've got my daughter with me and we don't have a FP+ but can we please go through your line?" and showed me his license as if he wasn't obviously Mark McGrath and I had to act like I didn't know exactly who he was and I was like "... yeah go for it."

Anyway, you guys should be good for Festival day! If you go to the booths as soon as they open and see Sugar Ray's first set, you're going to be fine as far as crowds go.

I honestly hate calling anywhere.

Same, I hate phone calls!

 

[missangelalexis]

Congrats on getting reservations in SWGE!

Ahhh I loved Eureka's Castle too! I definitely have a pic by that sign too!

I saw Sugar Ray at Eat to the beat one year too! You'll enjoy it, though seeing BBMak would have been cool too!

Glad you got your MNSSHP tickets moved!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Glad you got the SWGE reservations you wanted!

I avoid calling people as much as humanly possible also ! I hate it. Glad you got your tickets switched though.

 

[Gina Starr]

Sorry I haven’t been back in a while!

I am confused about the people mover too! It was definitely included in the first reports about the party and now nothing! So strange

I know! What the heck?! I already feel like I’m not going to get everything done so I guess it’s good there’s not another thing on my list.

BBMak sounds SUPER familiar. I'm going to have to look them up! *update* I definitely used to listen to them! That took me back!!

Glad I could remind you of them! Joey Fatone of *NSYNC was recently announced too. All my 90s faves and I can’t see them!

The FP+ look amazing!!! Great job, guys!!!

Thanks! We weren’t as worried about them as normal but still happy with what we got!

When I did my DCP, I was in Disney for the ENTIRETY of the F&WF and the only EttB performance I saw was Sugar Ray. Then Mark McGrath came through my FP+ line at PPF one night and he had one of his daughters with him and he took his driver's license out of his wallet and leaned in like he was about to tell me some secret and he was like "Listen, my name is Mark, I'm a performer during the Eat to the Beat festival, I've got my daughter with me and we don't have a FP+ but can we please go through your line?" and showed me his license as if he wasn't obviously Mark McGrath and I had to act like I didn't know exactly who he was and I was like "... yeah go for it."

Hahahaha I loved this story! Was he at least nice? And not one of those “Don’t you know who I am?!” celebrities.

Ahhh I loved Eureka's Castle too! I definitely have a pic by that sign too!

I couldn’t even tell you any of the characters names but I definitely remember the theme song! I need to check out YouTube and see if there is any episodes.

I saw Sugar Ray at Eat to the beat one year too! You'll enjoy it, though seeing BBMak would have been cool too!

I love the 90s/early 2000s so I’m sure we will enjoy Sugar Ray!

Glad you got the SWGE reservations you wanted!

I avoid calling people as much as humanly possible also ! I hate it. Glad you got your tickets switched though.

Thanks! We both talk on the phone all day every day as our job so we just really hate making calls. I feel like I accomplished something when I make a call somewhere!

 

[Cloe Colton]

After doing the first party I'm happy they didn't do a People Mover overlay! It had no wait and was a super relaxing way to get away from the party crowds! haha

 

[Gina Starr]

Less than 30 days!!

That’s the good news. Now for the bad news. That countdown only applies if we can still go on this trip. Long story- I was in the hospital for four days last week with pneumonia. Donnie took some time off work to be with me in the hospital and to take care of me once I was home. I mentioned this before but we work at the same place and it’s a huge company so we have to go through a specific process for time off. Doctors don’t seem to understand that I can’t just use a “doctors note” to get out of work. I almost left against doctors advice because I was worried about time off.

Anyways, Donnie was reassured that he would be good to be with me and was all but guaranteed he wouldn’t have a problem. My doctor doesn’t seem to want to approve his time off to be my caregiver and our work isn’t being very helpful now that I’m out of the hospital and he is back at work. So the time we had set aside for this Disney trip might have to go towards him being off. And that’s not even the worse case scenario but I don’t even want to talk/think about that.

I was going to start posting about outfits or must do’s but I really don’t want to start getting excited for something that might not happen. I hope to be back with good news but we might not know til really close to the trip. If everyone could put some good vibes out for us, I would appreciate it! Not sure how this PTR will pan out but thanks for following along up til now! ​

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I'm so sorry to hear you're so sick! I hope you're feeling better but how frustrating to have to deal with work and time off when you're sick. I hope everything works out for your trip.

 

[missangelalexis]

Aw Gina, I'm so sorry to hear you were sick And it stinks that it gets so complicated with your workplace. Sending all the good vibes that you can still go on the trip!!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Im sorry! Hopefully you can still make the trip happen! Its such a shame when time off is more stressful than just trying to get better!

 

[Newsies]

I'm so sorry to hear this, Gina I'm sending so much love and positive vibes from NJ! Hope you feel better soon and everything works out

 

[Gina Starr]

I'm so sorry to hear you're so sick! I hope you're feeling better but how frustrating to have to deal with work and time off when you're sick. I hope everything works out for your trip.

Aw Gina, I'm so sorry to hear you were sick And it stinks that it gets so complicated with your workplace. Sending all the good vibes that you can still go on the trip!!

Im sorry! Hopefully you can still make the trip happen! Its such a shame when time off is more stressful than just trying to get better!

I'm so sorry to hear this, Gina I'm sending so much love and positive vibes from NJ! Hope you feel better soon and everything works out

Thanks guys! I’m starting to feel better. I went back to work Friday but I’m still soooo tired. I have read that it takes months to be fully recovered from pneumonia which means I probably won’t be back to myself if/when we go on this trip.

On a positive note, my doctor DID approve Donnie’s time off so now we just wait for this third party company to approve/deny our time off. They say it takes 1-1 1/2 weeks so fingers crossed! Hope to be back with more good news!

In the meantime, I have been reading TRs but haven’t felt like commenting/quoting so if you see me liking posts just know I’m still here!

 

[Gina Starr]

Hey everyone! I won’t try and build any suspense- I come with good news! The trip is on! On Wednesday Donnie got the email we had been waiting for; it had only been 3 days since we had submitted the necessary paperwork and we were expecting a week or more so when I saw the word “approved” it felt like a million pounds were taken off my shoulders. I got my approval email a few hours after him so now we can get down to planning more!

Our original countdown is at 13 days but we have decided to take Friday off and drive most of the way during the day Friday and stay the night somewhere on the way. Our plan is to make a stop about 4 hours from WDW. Donnie will probably be too excited to sleep so we will probably get on the road the next day pretty early and be at Disney between 10am and noon which is several hours before originally planned AND Donnie doesn’t have to drive through the night on little to no sleep.

Today is my birthday and, yes, the title of this PTR is “a birthday adventure.” We were supposed to be in WDW right now when this trip was very first planned but things happened and it got pushed back. In hindsight, I’m thankful those things happened because there is no way we would be ready for this trip.

We aren’t people who pack a week or two early, we definitely pack the night before we go anywhere. So no rush on that but we DO need to figure out what we are packing. Like I mentioned before I went from having like 3 Disney shirts that fit to having 15-20 in a few months so I tried everything on to see what I’m bringing! We are trying to pack light, which I don’t really know the meaning of. We are driving so we could technically fill our whole car but we are gonna have maybe 12 hours between the time we get home after the trip and when we have to go back to work so I’m not trying to overdo it.

I’m going to post pictures of most of the shirts I have. Sorry if clothes aren’t your thing!




(From BoxLunch- I think this is on my yes list)


(From BoxLunch- cute but I’m avoiding black shirts so I will keep this for January!)


(This is our Instagram and non-existent YouTube logo)


(From BoxLunch- super cute, also on my yes list)


(From BoxLunch- don’t know that I will pack this- not sure that we are going to make it to AK this trip)


(From Sears when it was going out of business- it’s a crop top which I will only do with with waisted jeans so not packing this one)


(Same story as the one above)


(From BoxLunch- probably bringing this one)


(I think this one is from Target? This one will only work with specific types of pants so not sure if I will pack it)​

 

[Gina Starr]

(I think I got this at Target- in my maybe pile)




(From BoxLunch- I love it but the material is kinda heavy and not breathable- saving for January)


(I got this at the Disney outlet in Orlando this past January. It’s a little too big but I still really like it)


(From Five Below- I like it but I like the previous shirt better and I don’t need two Star Wars shirts for a 4 day trip)


(I think from Target- definitely in the no pile since it’s black)


(From Target- it’s a maybe)


(From BoxLunch- definitely yes!)


(From Target- cute but too many other cute things so probably no for this trip)


(I can’t remember where I got this. I wanna say Target but maybe Walmart? Probably no for this trip but only cause I have literally 18 shirts!)

I am a jeans and t-shirt kinda girl. I see some people look cute and put together in Disney but that’s not me. So any of these shirts will be paired with shorts or leggings.

Thanks for going on this fashion journey with me and I hope to be back with some more updates soon! I also still have some pictures to post from my 90s trip!​