Crossing Our Fingers and Toes! A July 2021 PTR

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Hello all!

It's been a while since I've actually focused on a PTR. My last couple of trips were planned so quickly I didn't really have the opportunity to make PTRs and then 2020 all of my plans kind of...well, collapsed.

And maybe this trip will too? But we're talking about it more realistically now, so I need a place to share my planning brain and revel in the potential trip. So we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will happen! I know a lot of people have safely gone to Disney during the pandemic but because of jobs and other factors for us it just isn't a feasible option if things remain the same. But no matter what we're being hopeful!

So, since it's been a minute since I posted here, hi! I'm Elle!



I'm a 30-something who loves Disney (obviously). I'm an AP holder and usually go down to Disney multiple times a year, usually on breaks. When I'm at home I'm a middle school teacher. This year has been....tough to say the least, so I'm very much hoping that we can do this and go down for a trip.

My partners in crime are some familiar faces for anyone who's read through any of my other more recent trip reports.

First up we have Liz:



Liz has been one of my best friends since we were kids. She's a former CM who loves Belle and Big Thunder Mountain. When she lived in Florida we would take time out to see her and ever since she moved back up she's been a near-constant member of my travel party.

Next up is Jill:



I've known Jill for a little over 10 years. She's one of my good friends and we've gone to Disney together three times, though she's gone multiple times before.


And finally, we've got Kristen:



Kristen is the newest member to the Disney crew. Her first trip was in 2018 when we went as a big group. She's a Cinderella lover and while she and I haven't known each other as long as I've known the other two she is also one of my absolute best friends. She's also the person I use to bounce planning ideas off of, because she may not have the experience but that helps because she can't help me think things through more logically.


For our trip this July that we're really planning in earnest now (even though we haven't made any definite decisions yet) we'll be staying at Coronado Springs. Our plan right now is to be there from July 17-25 with our park days being July 18-24.

Oh, why you might ask?

Well, unlike any other year we're actually planning on driving down. We've been talking about doing a road trip for a while. I did one about 11 years ago to Disney and I loved having the freedom to come and go as we pleased but I did not love that I drove the entire way (bad planning meant that we had to use my car at the time, which was standard and only I could drive it). This time though while we'll be using my car again we'll be able to switch off easier and three out of the four of us have done the drive before so we are at least familiar with the drive.

I mean, it'll be long, like 19 hours long, but it'll be fun if we can do it!


So, hopefully I'll do better with this trip report and we'll be able to go so I can update this with good news over the next few months!

 

[Bama Mom]

Looking forward to reading about your trip.

 

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We Bit the Bullet

So, we were going to wait until after our Winter break to make any "hard" plans (ie, putting money down on the hotel or anything like that) because that is the next time we would all have the opportunity to really sit down and talk about how we felt.

Except we've instead done a ton of talking about things via text. And we've really broken down everything we feel we can and can't afford.

I've been waffling about keeping my AP this year. I am going to Disney twice in 2021, or at least planning on it, but the price of the AP will not cover the price of the two separate tickets I am getting for my two trips this year (one is a very short trip and we'll only have 2 day passes). I've also been considering getting the Premier Pass. I'd planned on it for 2021 because I'd moved my California trip from 2020 but at this point I may not get to California to see my friends out there until 2022.

So, when the newest discount with the "get two days free" promo came out we spent a few hours doing the math and going through the pros and cons of us doing a package versus us doing a Room Only reservation with separate tickets. We finally decided the package was the better option for where we are right now. We got the 5 day plus 2 free day passes, giving us 7 park tickets and booked ourselves at Coronado - officially - last week!

Since then it seems more and more likely we'll be going down this summer. We all seem a bit more confident with our decisions and we're all a bit more hopeful. So, things are feeling a little bit more real here!

 

[stuffed withfluff]

Hello all!

It's been a while since I've actually focused on a PTR. My last couple of trips were planned so quickly I didn't really have the opportunity to make PTRs and then 2020 all of my plans kind of...well, collapsed.

And maybe this trip will too? But we're talking about it more realistically now, so I need a place to share my planning brain and revel in the potential trip. So we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will happen! I know a lot of people have safely gone to Disney during the pandemic but because of jobs and other factors for us it just isn't a feasible option if things remain the same. But no matter what we're being hopeful!

So, since it's been a minute since I posted here, hi! I'm Elle!

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I'm a 30-something who loves Disney (obviously). I'm an AP holder and usually go down to Disney multiple times a year, usually on breaks. When I'm at home I'm a middle school teacher. This year has been....tough to say the least, so I'm very much hoping that we can do this and go down for a trip.




So, hopefully I'll do better with this trip report and we'll be able to go so I can update this with good news over the next few months!

Hi! I am also a 30 year old ish Disney fan!

 

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Hi! I am also a 30 year old ish Disney fan!

Hi! thanks for stopping by!

 

[xlsm]

Aw, look at us keeping tradition and planning trips a month apart and not at the same time again! LOL!! We're heading down in June.
I have done zero planning. Like, we're booked at the Polynesian which announced the refurb of regular rooms and their closure at that time, and we haven't even called to ask about moving. That's the kind of zero I'm talking about We want to just switch to a dvc room there, or move to Riviera or Yacht Club, but we've done nothing about it.

Looking forward to reading about your plans and getting inspired to do some planning work on our own!!

 

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Aw, look at us keeping tradition and planning trips a month apart and not at the same time again! LOL!! We're heading down in June.
I have done zero planning. Like, we're booked at the Polynesian which announced the refurb of regular rooms and their closure at that time, and we haven't even called to ask about moving. That's the kind of zero I'm talking about We want to just switch to a dvc room there, or move to Riviera or Yacht Club, but we've done nothing about it.

Looking forward to reading about your plans and getting inspired to do some planning work on our own!!

I'm glad we're keeping our tradition alive!

 

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Anyone Else Feel...

Anyone else feel weird that they've hit their 180 day mark but you can't make ADRs yet?

Because I feel really weird about it lol. I've been half-planning food for the last week because in the back of my mind I've been thinking "we need to figure this out" and then have to convince myself that I'm wrong.

We've basically planned a couple of days food-wise, which is good:

1. the 17th (the day we'll reach property) we figure we'll play it by ear but depending on how we feel when we get there we'll see if we can get in at one of the sit downs at our hotel.

2. Our first night we may go to Cinderella's Royal Table our first park day. Kristen LOVES Cinderella and last time we went down she didn't end up getting to go to CRT. We figure we'll do it as a special thing for her since she's always wanted to try it.

3. Our Tuesday is going to be a hotel morning/relaxing day. We've talked about making a reservation at Wine Bar George later that afternoon to get some small plates and enjoy a glass of wine. It'd get us to Disney Sprigs to wander around and enjoy an evening there or it'll be a good jumping off point to figure out what else we want to do that day.

4. Our last morning we're going to do Homecomin' for brunch. Liz and I did it for my birthday in 2019 and loved it. We figured if we have a bigger breakfast then we don't need to worry about having a bigger dinner later and can enjoy doing whatever we want our last day without having a later ADR to eep.

We have other places we want to go to, but we haven't figured out what will fit where and if we want to do them all yet or not.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

 

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When You Plan to Plan


You know, for a trip that we haven't officially made official yet (outside of making a reservation), we're pretty official lol.

Thing's we've figured out so far...

Rides -

We each made lists of what rides we definitely want to ride and what we would like to ride if we're able to. Then we put all four of our lists together and prioritized the rides we all four said we wanted to do in each park. That way we have a plan in case FPs aren't back.

Food -

We made a basic list of places we want to eat. We figured that we'd pare them down one it's closer to the time we have to make ADRs but for now we thought it'd make the most sense to have a planned sit down meal every day just in case more QS places aren't open up again. We'll probably change a few as we go and get rid of some but this is our basic options so far:

- July 17: We have no plans, mostly because we have absolutely no idea when we'll get to the park. We figure if we feel like we want a sit down meal we'll look at what's available at Disney Springs and make a reservation once we're close to Orlando. If we're not super hungry we'll probably just grab a quick service meal somewhere either at our hotel or in Disney Springs if we're not too tired to drive or take the bus over.

- July 18: Cinderalla's Royal Table. This one is non-negotiable. Kristen is in LOVE with Cinderella and has said how much she wants to go here.

- July 19: Via Napoli. We figured it was a good restaurant we all like. We may drop it just because we all enjoy snacking around Epcot so much but we figured better safe.

- July 20: Nothing really planned because it's a day we'll probably relax. We may make a reservation for Wine Bar George not for a full meal but for some shared apps

- July 21: Prime Time if we decide we want to have a sit down in Studios. Simple, easy meal. We'll also probably make a reservation for Oga's since it's a fun experience and Kristen's the only one who hasn't tried it yet.

- July 22: Probably a Garden Grille breakfast. We all want to try it but haven't really had the opportunity to because it's always booked up. We also figured that it'd be a good, big dinner that would allow for us to not really need more than a couple of snacks while we're doing things around Epcot that day.

- July 23: Yak & Yeti lunch. This one will probably stay on here unless we decide we would rather Sat'uuli. I brought Jill here in April 2019 and she really liked it and we've talked about it a lot with the other girls.

- July 24: Homecomin' brunch. Liz and I did this for my birthday in 2019 and really loved it. When we mentioned wanting to do a brunch one day this was the first place we all really loved the menu of.

- July 25: Probably something fast unless we decide to grab something at Disney Springs before we start driving home.


Magic Bands -

We bought new Magic Bands for our trip and customized them. It's more a way to commemorate the trip and I think most of us will bring multiple MBs to match our outfits but we all really liked some of the new bands and decided it made sense to just buy them now.


We've also done some outfit planning but I'll talk about that in a different post later this week

 

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Outfits

I'm going to be really honest: I'm in a Zoom meeting and it's been such a long day already I need a distraction before my online class tonight lol. So clearly Disney is where my brain went.

So, as theatre kids my friends and I are all about themed outfits. We tried not to have too many planned outfits but well, we're bad at limiting ourselves.


So here's a basic breakdown of our themes and what I'm wearing:

July 18: Princesses (AM)
I'm doing Ariel. Partially because it's easy (gotta love being a red head), partially because I have done Merida SO many times (I mean, she is my favorite), and mostly because I did a hipster Ariel one year for Halloween and I've wanted to wear the shirt again.

July 18: Cute Dresses (PM)
Not a huge "theme", but we wanted to specifically plan to dress nicely for the evening since we're having a "nicer" meal. I have three dresses/rompers that I'm bringing with me for evenings so I'll just wear one of them. Nothing fancy, just some cute floral outfits that can work to be a bit dressier than the normal shorts/t-shirt

July 19: Epcot Outfit
Just a cute generic Epcot outfit. I'm doing an Epcot Forever shirt with an Epcot headband that I own.

July 21: Star Wars (AM)
I have a shirt that looks like a Bowie "Rebel, Rebel" shirt but has the logo of the rebellion on it, and somehow that's spawned us having a Star Wars theme day. No complaints here! I have a Star Wars headband (I wear headbands to work so I have a ton of Disney ones)

July 21: Villains (PM)
This lives in this slot just because I like having an AM and a PM outfit every day (just to be safe) But we each picked a villain. I'm doing Chernabog because I have a Fantasia shirt that looks like a Van Halen t-shirt and I own a pair of black and purple star ears (I love things with stars on them and when they came out in like October on Shop Disney I knew I had to buy them)

July 23: Winnie the Pooh
I'm doing Eeyore. We each picked a character (Eeyore, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger) and we're bounding as them. This is the only outfit I really needed to buy for this trip. I got Eeyore Minnie ears, a custom-made tank top that says "Thanks for Noticin' Me), and I'm going to wear a flue floral wrap with it (because I liked the look of the tank better than the t-shirt but my arms burn so easily). I really just needed to buy the tanks.

July 24: Lands
We each chose a "Land" in MK. I'm doing Tomorrowland because I have a yellow Carousel of Progress shirt that'll look adorable with my black skirt and sneakers. (a slightly longer version of the skirt I'm wearing in the first post.)

For most of these I used them as excuses to pull out some of my favorite Disney tops I haven't worn in the parks yet (since I basically buy outfits for future Disney trips on Etsy whenever I have the ability to). I'm excited to (hopefully) wear these outfits in Disney!

 

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Minor Updates

I've been pretty quiet the past couple of weeks. We've been working on some personal stuff so we put Disney on the back burner for our conversation while people dealt with their stuff. But we are back on the Disney train!

Sunday night we made the decision that we'd split the drive up into two days officially (we've been waffling back and forth and figured we'd decide once we got closer). We've decided that the best stop would be in Roanoke Rapids. That puts us at about 9 1/2 hours (probably closer to 10-12 depending on traffic) into our drive and 9 1/2 hours (again, probably closer to 10-12 depending on traffic) away from Disney.

I think our basic plan of action after talking about it Sunday is for us to leave around 7 am the day we're starting our drive (the 16th). Our hope is that we pass through Richmond around dinner time (7 pm-8 pm at the latest) so we can stop there for something to eat and take a stretch break before taking the remaining hour to get to the hotel for the night.

Our next day we'll head out early, grab a Go Bag for breakfast, fill the tank, and head out. This way we'd hopefully get to the hotel by 8 and be able to head to Disney Springs for an hour or so to walk around and maybe grab something to eat and just relax a little bit before we go to bed.

All in all though we seem like we're in a very good place for Florida, and we have 107 days until we start our drive!

 

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We Did A Thing


Oops?

Sooooo with the announcement of Food and Wine and Liz's birthday being a couple weeks ago as well as a couple other things I started looking at other resorts to see if changing our hotel was an option for us. I asked Jill and Kristen to talk me out of it and they did the exact opposite.

So....we're staying in a Deluxe Studio at Boardwalk now. We'll have a Queen bed, a pull down bed, and a pull out sofa.

I figured it'd be best because we'd be close to Epcot for the festival. Also, Liz loves the Boardwalk but has never stayed there. I also maaaaaaay have used her birthday as an excuse. Celebrate birthdays in style and all, y'know? Also I'm someone who doesn't sleep well (I'm a tosser and turner/it's hard for me to fall asleep and wake up early) so I selfishly like the idea that I could sleep in the small bed by myself and not bother people.

 

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ADRs Are Almost Here!

Our ADR day is this coming Tuesday. For the first time in all my trips in over ten years I'm not the one doing our ADRs. With them opening up at 6 am instead of 7 it kind of throws off my groove (I leave for work at 5:45 so I can stop and grab breakfast). Jill is on it though since she'll be up and ready for work but won't need to leave until a little later, which is perfect!

We're close to the end of all our planning too. It's insane to me that we're so close to our trip! So far, this is our current plan, changed a bit from our original plans a few moths ago:

Potential ADRs
- Cinderella's Royal Table dinner on the evening of our first full day.
- Beaches n Cream for lunch our first Studios day
- Oga's Cantina our second Studios day
- The Edison for dinner our second Studios day (we made this reservation through Open Table so we are already all set with it)
- Homecomin' for brunch our last full day

We've changed around some outfit ideas and started getting things acquired so that's fun too!

 

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60 Days Out, No Longer Partially Potential

We are officially 62 days until we're back in our happy place! We leave 60 days from today and we are officially paid off fully! We get to do our ADRs on Tuesday! It kept feeling like everything was so far away and now it's finally starting to feel real.

I got my eyes examined on Thursday. I had gotten it down a little less than a year ago but it said that my prescription hadn't changed with I knew wasn't true - I think it was because it was at the epicenter when everything was pretty bad here so it was a telepointment and much harder to gauge. Thankfully this new optometrist listened to and was an in-person appointment. I have new glasses on the way, should get them by Tuesday (I'm the kind of person that has multiple pairs depending on my mood, so I made sure I have a pair of sunglasses and regular glasses to get used to them as soon as possible but my every day frames will get here in a couple weeks with my new prescription in them.). I felt like it was important to get a second opinion about my prescription before we started a three day drive down the coast.

I also think I bought everything I need except Dramamine and Tylenol for my purse. There was a buy one, get one 40% off deal going on at Ulta so I was able to get the last of my toiletries for a good price. I work down the hill from a Target and there's a Walmart pretty close by too so I figure I can stop at one of those after work once it gets closer to pick those bits up.

So, things to do before we go:
- Make ADRs
- Double check To Buy list
- Update packing list
- Begin packing (probably starting around July 16 once summer begins for me)
- Car Service (I have an appointment in two weeks)

I also still have a couple of outfits I need to go through to see if I want to pack it or not but I have most of that figured out. Everything's starting to feel like it's coming together and I'm trying really hard not to start getting overzealous because my last three trips had to be canceled or postponed so now I'm overexcited lol.

 

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ADRs!

We got our ADRs! Jill had to do them for us but she managed to get basically everything we wanted!

Sunday 7/18
- Cinderella's Royal Table 7:55 PM
This puts us at getting out of dinner around close so we'll get some pretty night shots. I haven't done a park close dinner in SO long so I'm excited for it!

Tuesday 7/20
- Beaches & Cream 3:20 PM
Originally we wanted this ADR to be on Monday 7/19. We're going to keep trying to find a time on the 19th but if it doesn't work out and we stay here then we'll be pretty okay. This is a day we plan to get up early to go to the outlets then spend some time in Epcot, so if we do a more relaxed "go with the flow" sort of day then we can use our ADR as an excuse to go back to the hotel for a pool break or as a time to decide if we want to hop someplace else (our "big" Epcot day will be Thursday, where we plan to rope drop Epcot and spend most of the day there)

Friday 7/23
- Oga's Cantina 11:35 AM
Kristen has never been to Oga's so it'll be fun to go. It's also a nice time because we can take a break and discuss what we want to do for plans since we don't have a ton planned on this day
- The Edison 7:00 PM
I made this ADR through Open Table. We figured this would be a good day to drive to Springs and do some shopping without having to worry about the bus system (we do want to do one night where we just enjoy Springs for small plate and drink options and kind of play "Reservation Roulette" where we just kind of go wherever is open but that might be a bus night depending on our mood)

Saturday 7/24
- Homecomin' 9:30 AM
We all love brunch options and this was our pick from the start. We want to try Topollino's as well but that might be for another trip.

All in all, considering some of the issues people have seemed to be having when it comes to ADRs, I'm pretty pleased and shocked with how well Jill did (though she was on right at 6 AM this morning lol)

 

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Some New Plans

We made a couple new plans this past week! I made a reservation for myself at Savi's on our second Studio's day. It's at 12:25 so we'll have just finished up at Oga's. Jill and I will head over for the experience while Liz and Kristen enjoy Batuu. I'll have my lightsaber sent to the front of the park afterwards so I don't need to worry about it if I can.

Then we made a breakfast reservation at Topolino's for 8:20 for the day we leave. We figured this is a good way to get a decent breakfast. We'll use our hotel break Saturday to pack up our stuff so we can just throw it into the car on Sunday morning, drive over to the Riviera, and leave from there. Topolino's was our second pick if we couldn't get into Homecomin' and it was something everyone wanted to do so it only made sense to suggest it when we were trying to plan our drive home. I'm glad everyone else agreed with me!

 

[disny_luvr]

It sounds like you have a great trip planned! We’ll be arriving in Disney a few days after you leave. I’m a middle school teacher, too, so most of our Disney trips happen in the summer. Have fun!

 

[sheri18]

Following along..we just booked for last week of July..we have never gone during summer so a little nervous about the heat...

 

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It sounds like you have a great trip planned! We’ll be arriving in Disney a few days after you leave. I’m a middle school teacher, too, so most of our Disney trips happen in the summer. Have fun!

Thanks! Have fun!!!

Following along..we just booked for last week of July..we have never gone during summer so a little nervous about the heat...

Have a blast! My usual summer strategy is take it slow and take breaks when needed. We've kept most of our afternoons open so we can go back to the hotel if we need to for a nap in the AC or a dip in the pool.