DH said not going again for 5 years ..now going 2X in a year! An October 2013

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 1 – WE-ARE-FAMILY!
This is my first trip report! I am very excited to be writing this report – it is a little daunting to be writing a pre-trip report as my first report since I will have to try and find plenty of things to write about between now and October.
The title to this trip report is a great story on how I somehow got my husband to become a Disney lover! I am going to leave that story for just a little bit later.
First, I want to spend a little time introducing everyone to my family. Then I want to spend some time giving a background on our past trips which will include what parks we have visited, where we have eaten, and what characters we have met. I am also going to try and compile a list of rides that we have never ridden while at Disney. I am hoping to get some feedback on some ideas for our trip in October and our trip next June. Yay – I cannot wait! Well time to get to the introductions!
First, my name is Shannon and I live in Indiana with my husband and 2 daughters. I am almost 32 years old and work in the banking industry. I visited Disney once as a child at age 5 but did not return until my husband and I brought our oldest daughter in 2009. I am extremely OCD  and that first trip as a family brought out my extreme vacation planning. We had been on a vacation the previous summer to Daytona Beach but this was our first big vacation. This is when I found the DIS but I have always been a lurker – gasp! I have been reading a bunch of TRs lately and I suddenly decided I wanted to write a report myself! Some other tidbits about me – I am going to school to complete my master’s degree, I love to read, and I like to scrapbook when I find time. Here is my picture…..

Next is Tony my DH. We have been married since 2005. He comes from a large family of 6 children so he didn’t get to go on many vacations as a child. We went to Vegas for our honeymoon and that was his real first vacation that didn’t involve staying at a relative’s home! He really enjoyed our first trip to Disney in 2009 but 2012 – not so much (hence this trip report title which I will explain soon)! He works as a supervisor for a large company that warehouses and distributes frozen food products. He is like a big kid – loves Star Wars, action movies, and playing video games. Here is his picture…..

Our oldest daughter is Haley. She will be 7 in September and will be entering 1st grade in 3 weeks . She doesn’t remember her first trip to Disney as she wasn’t quite 3 yet but she had a fabulous time once she got over being shy around the characters. During our trip last year, she did really well with all the walking although she didn’t seem to want to see many of the costumed characters (but the princesses were still fine). Her favorite princesses are in her words “the brave ones” – Mulan, Pocohontas, and Merida. She also really likes Belle. Here is her picture from our last trip……

Last but definitely not least is our daughter, Carley. Carley just turned 3 and it is already apparent that she will be the child to make my hair gray . She is very independent already. She turned 2 on our 2012 trip and was not happy the entire trip unless she was PHYSICALLY hugging a character or on a ride. This was an 11 day trip so you can see why my husband was in no huge hurry to come back lol. She is really into princesses right now and her favorite is Rapunzel. Here is her picture from our last trip….

Well, I think that is a good first chapter. Up next, our first magical adventure!

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 2 – The best and most perfectly magical trip ever!
In 2009, my family and I made our first trip to Disney World. The family included myself, husband, oldest daughter Haley, and my 14 year old sister, Stephanie. Around this time, Stephanie was the perfect babysitter and helper because her social life hadn’t completed taken off yet lol! We stayed at the All-Star Movies resort from June 1 –June 8th.
Day 1 – Flight/Magical Express/Epcot/Hollywood Studios – We arrived at Epcot right around lunchtime. It was the day after the Flower & Garden festival ended so there were still some cool topiaries around. I didn’t take many pictures because I thought we could always go back and see them later but of course they were gone when we returned later in the week . My husband shaves his head and shortly before heading to Epcot he put sunscreen on his head. After being in the park for about an hour, his head started sweating and sunscreen got into his eye and his eye swelled shut. So needless to say, he got pretty crabby right at the get-go of our vacation. We ended up just going back to the resort and he laid down with a cold washcloth on his eye while the rest of us went to explore the resort and hit the pool for a bit. We went to Hollywood Studios later to see Fantasmic!


Day 2 – Animal Kingdom – saw the opening show and the parade but did not get to see Festival of the Lion King this trip. We left Animal Kingdom and went to have dinner at Chef Mickey’s.

Day 3 – Magic Kingdom – Saw the opening show and parade. The fireworks and SpectroMagic were cancelled because of rain which is why we went back on Saturday night. I was so excited because I got to see a girl I graduated high school with in the Dream Along with Mickey show (Wendy). It was nice to see her and see how much fun she was having working at Disney!


Day 4 – Blizzard Beach/Magic Kingdom – We slept in a little bit and spent a few hours at Blizzard Beach. We want to go back to a water park so still trying to decide if we want to try Typhoon Lagoon or go back to Blizzard Beach. After the water park, we went back to resort to change and headed back to the Magic Kingdom.
Day 5 – Epcot – We spent the entire day exploring Epcot. We even managed to walk up and get a table at Le Cellier! We even watched Illuminations that night.
Day 6 – Hollywood Studios (Star Wars Weekends)/Magic Kingdom – We spent the majority of the day at Hollywood Studios but headed back over to the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks and SpectroMagic that got rained out earlier in the week.
Day 7 – Epcot/Magic Kingdom/Winter Summerland Miniature Golf/Downtown Disney – This day started with a great story. When we went to Epcot our first day, we came across Daisy Duck as our very first character. Haley was scared and did not want anything to do with her. As the week progressed, she did better and better with the characters. This morning she woke up and said she wanted to hug Daisy Duck. I told her that she was going to be able to because we were going to the Magic Kingdom and I didn’t believe she was there. Of course, Daddy decided that we HAD to go back to Epcot to let her hug Daisy! So we went to Epcot to see Daisy and walked around Innoventions and then went to the Magic Kingdom. We left the Magic Kingdom early afternoon. My sister stayed with Haley at the resort while Tony and I went to play mini golf and went to Downtown Disney. We walked around a bunch and then went to Disney Quest and ate at House of Blues. It was a fun night out. This is the evening that we discussed and decided we were ready to have baby #2!

Day 8 – Downtown Disney/Magical Express/Home – Leaving day  We went to Downtown Disney and did some shopping. We ate at the Rainforest Café and then headed back so we could catch a ride on the Magical Express to head to the airport.
The only ADR we had this trip was for Chef Mickey’s (I know – GASP!!!).. During this trip, we also ate at the ASM food court, Pizzafari, Cosmic Rays, Pinnochio Village Haus, Electric Umbrella, and Mama Melrose. I know, nothing terribly exciting except our walk-up at Le Cellier!
We saw lots of characters this trip too! Here is a summary of them from each park –
Epcot – Daisy (x2), Donald in Mexico, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Belle (in blue dress – I think she was practicing), Stitch
Animal Kingdom – Terk, Donald, Minnie, Goofy, Mickey
Hollywood Studios – Tigger, Woody, Buzz, Pooh, Eyeore, Chip & Dale, Carl & Dug, Little Einsteins, Mike W. (Monsters Inc.), Lightning McQueen & Mater
Magic Kingdom – Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel (in fin), Pinnochio, Snow White
Overall, this trip was awesome! We had so many small magical moments happen. We made it to park opening every day, saw every parade and made it to the fireworks every evening. (That is NOT how our second trip went lol). Haley was an awesome traveler. Every day when she was tired, she would just lay back in the stroller and fall asleep. No meltdowns, no fits, everything was great (more foreshadowing of our next trip lol). Next up – Nobody told me that it couldn’t be possible to have kids MORE different than one another!

 

[happybelle]

Joining in.

 

[haley'smom44]

Welcome! Thanks for reading!

 

[haley'smom44]

Ugh! Been a rough few weeks :-( My husband was going through a rough period where we thought he was going to lose his job. As sad as it was, I was more distraught about canceling our vacation than anything lol. BUT..it's all good now! Yay! Trip is still on and husband is looking for a new job. I will post our last vacation summaries soon so I can get to planning our October trip and start asking everyone some questions. My first question is has anyone ever decorated their windows for Halloween? We are staying at Pop and I had read somewhere that this is a popular thing to do. So how does everyone decorate? Would it be easy to hang purple and orange lights around the window or would I have to have an extension cord dragging across the length of the room?

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 3 – Nobody told me that it couldn’t be possible to have kids MORE different than one another!
In June 2010 our second daughter, Carley was born so we did not go on vacation as I took my full 12 weeks off and didn’t get paid for the last half of leave (but it was oh so worth it to have the entire summer off!). We made up for it in 2011 as we took 2 vacations. In June, Tony and I went to Hawaii (Aulani was not open yet). We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and it was wonderful. We stayed in the rainbow tower and had a room with 2 balconies. It was a relaxing trip but I absolutely hated the 12 hour total flight time. Here are some pictures from that trip…


Here is the flowers I was obsessed with while we were there and now I have planted one in my front yard this summer. My mother-in-law told me I would probably have to dig it up and bring it in this winter (so we will see if that actually happens or not)!

For all the Lost fans….


Then in July we took the kids and went to Myrtle Beach. The girls did well on the 12 hour drive and we had a good time.
Ok! So 2009 trip was awesome! Haley was so well behaved and we had a wonderful time. I was so excited to bring our second daughter for our trip in 2012. I figured since she was my daughter that she would behave just like Haley, right? WRONG!!!!! Haley was fine with doing rope drop every day and staying through the fireworks every night. She would lay back in the stroller every day about parade time and take a nap. It took less than 24 hours on this trip to realize that type of touring plan was not going to happen for us lol! Out of our 13 day trip, we got up early and going on time 2 days. That’s it! She also refused to take a nap in the stroller so we only got to watch fireworks at Epcot one night and I got to look backwards and watch Wishes as I was walking out the Magic Kingdom one night.  Also, Carley is not a traveler. She wanted to go home the entire trip (which we also experienced this summer on our vacation to St. Louis). Carley was only happy on this trip when she was physically on a ride or had her arms wrapped around a character. It was BUSY so her happiness was few and far between lol!
Day 1 – We drove because airline tickets are outrageous. It is about a 16 hour drive from Indiana so we decided to break it up over 2 days each way. This was a complete surprise for the girls. They knew we were going on vacation but had no idea where we were headed. The first day we drove to Atlanta which takes about 8 hours. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Downtown Atlanta which was a very small hotel but was conveniently located by the Georgia Aquarium and the Coca Cola place. We went to the Georgia Aquarium that evening and I highly recommend it. They have a huge area that has whale sharks and giant stingrays in it – so cool! After the aquarium, we stopped to eat at Hooters on the walk back to resort – don’t eat there, horrible service!
Day 2 – We got up early and headed to the Atlanta Zoo. In case you can’t tell, my family is nuts for animals. We have to incorporate zoos into every vacation. When we went to Hawaii we saw sea turtles in the ocean and went on a submarine tour where we saw plenty of fish and stingrays. In Myrtle Beach, we stopped at the Riverbanks Zoo on the way and also went to Alligator Adventure. The reason we were so excited to go to the Atlanta Zoo is they have giant pandas, which there are only 5 zoos in the country that have them. We spent a couple of hours at the zoo and decided we wanted to get on the road so we could get to our hotel by around 7 that evening.
I did lots of research for this trip – months worth. The one thing that I did miss caused our first family fight of the trip. Word of advice for anyone traveling to Atlanta – make sure there is not an Atlanta Braves game happening at any point during your trip (unless that is why you are going). We tried to leave the zoo and all roads were shut down around the stadium. We were detoured by police officer after police officer who kept telling us to go a way that we couldn’t go. We past the interstate we needed to get on about 50 times but you just couldn’t get there from here. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to get what should have been 3 blocks to be on the interstate. Ugh!
On the way Tony and I had been trying to decide when to tell the girls where we were headed. We were headed to Universal first and we didn’t want to get them in the Disney bubble and then drag them over to the dark side . We decided as we were getting close to the Florida state line that we would stop at the Florida welcome center as it has tons of brochures and information on all the activities in Florida hoping Haley would see the Disney stuff and freak out. Well it started pouring about 15 miles from the rest stop but we decided to stop anyway. We get out of the car and run through the pouring rain only to get soaked and realize that the building is not open on holidays (this was Memorial Day). We walked along the windows and I clearly see Disney stuff inside but Haley was completely oblivious to the whole thing. So we get back in the car after a restroom break and start down the interstate. We decided to just flat out tell her. We said that we were going to Disney World but we were stopping at the place with Harry Potter first . She looked at me like I was crazy and told me that she knew that Disney World cost a lot of money and she KNEW that is NOT where we were going. Sigh….. She did not believe us until we were getting off the interstate and she could see the roller coasters at Islands of Adventure.
We were staying at the Royal Pacific Resort. Beautiful hotel but I think we arrived with about 500 other people at the exact same time. I waited in line forever while my husband got to sit in the car with 2 little girls that had been stuck in the car for way too long. So we got up to our room and went found some dinner and went to bed eager for the fun next day.
Up next – Are we ever going to get to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey?!

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 4 – The so not Disney World of Universal Studios
Day 3 – We were up bright and early ready for Harry Potter. I have read all the books and could not wait to see how the area was themed. We took the water taxi to Islands of Adventure and there was a huge line waiting to get in. We got in the huge line and waited and waited. When we finally reached the front of the line the employee told us that we had vouchers and not the actual tickets and we would have to go to the guest relations line to get our actual tickets . About this time the park opened and people went running for Harry Potter. It was not a good beginning to our Universal trip to say the least. So we got the ticket situation fixed and headed back that way. When we got The Forbidden Journey an employee told us that the ride was down and there was already a 2 hour line – in the entire 15 minutes it took us to get our tickets fixed and get back to the area. Geesh! Not to mention the line for the wand store was so bad that I thought it was the line at first. I was about to have a meltdown at this point lol. Haley was driving me crazy that she wanted to ride a ride as well so Tony took her on the Flight of a Hippogriff. After that we decided to cut our losses and head over to Universal Studios and try for more Harry Potter the next day.
At Universal Studios we just started at the front and made our way around. Carley got to see her very first character, Curious George. We didn’t know if she was going to like characters or not but were very happy that she loved Curious George even though she had absolutely no idea who he was! We knew that a SpongeBob dance party and meet and greet were about to start so we decided to hang out. Here is a good picture of how Carley started before one of her many meltdowns.

So charming, right? She soon got over it because she absolutely loves Spongebob. The girls had so much fun at the little dance party they had as well.


We saw everything that we wanted at Universal Studios and decided to call it a day. We stopped at CityWalk and had dinner and then went back to pool to swim. They were showing Madagascar in the pool, which was pretty cool. Then bed because I was determined for Harry Potter the next morning!
Day 4 – Of course Carley was not cooperating and then the water taxis were not cooperating so we did not get to Islands of Adventure as soon as I would have liked. We got to The Forbidden Journey and it stated to have a 45 minute wait but I did not care. We all waited in line together and then did a rider switch as the girls could not ride. It was awesome! I hope they have a cool ride when they open the expansion (which will probably lead to another trip to Universal next year). We were then late to our breakfast at The Three Broomsticks but they did not seem to care. After dinner, Tony and Haley rode the Flight of Hippogriff again and then Tony went on the dueling dragons ride. After that it was time for some butterbeer! It was delicious! I preferred the frozen while Tony like the regular.



After that, the girls were so excited because that meant we could go back to Seussland which we had been dragging them through but not letting them ride anything for the last two days. They got to meet some characters and had a really good time.
Day 5 – We had decided that we wanted to go to Sea World on this trip as well. This is a short report lol. It was extremely hot that day. The girls were ready for Disney. We stayed for about 4 hours and then called it a day. We watched the dolphin show which was fun to watch. We also watch the killer whale show but it just wasn’t the same since the trainers cannot get into the water anymore. The highlight of the day was as I was snapping away with pictures of the beluga whales when Haley asked me what was sticking out of the whale and why he was trying to hurt the other whale. I then realized that the whales were being really friendly with one another and I didn’t want to explain this to my 5 year old lol. So I hightailed it out of there as fast as possible lol. After I got home, I realized that you really couldn’t tell what they were doing through the camera so it wasn’t my fault for not dragging her away quickly lol. And since I know you are all curious about the picture…..

Up next – We are FINALLY headed to Disney!

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 5- Yes, I left ALL your underwear at Universal :-/
Yes, this caused a fight lol. The night before we left Royal Pacific I started packing stuff up. It is very important that I add I did this while Tony sat on the bed watching tv. The next morning he is in a HURRY to leave. It also starts pouring down rain which becomes the theme of our Disney trip unfortunately. Our first trip we had the typical afternoon showers, this trip rained every day except 1 for a good portion of the day . So I finish packing (but not everything apparently) and we head out to Disney World. We check into Port Orleans Riverside and it is still pouring. Haley was so excited because we stayed in one of the royal rooms so there was princess stuff everywhere. We decide to eat lunch at the food court and then take a nap assuming that by the time we woke up that the rain would be gone. We woke up and it was still raining. I had made reservations at Hollywood & Vine so we decided to head on over to Hollywood Studios. It stopped raining on the way so we were excited. It was a Friday of Star Wars weekends so it was pretty busy. Tony and Haley decided they were going to ride Star Tours. I was pushing around Carley in the stroller when she starts yelling that she sees and wants a monkey. Of course, I am looking around and trying to determine what in the world she is talking about. I finally realize that she sees Chewbacca and then the ridiculously long line there is to meet him. Sigh. Since we are waiting on the others to get off the ride anyway I tell her we will get in line. Tony and Haley come back from the ride and stand in line with us because of course Tony is perfectly willing to have his picture taken with Chewbacca!

We then ate our dinner at Hollywood & Vine. When we were done it was raining again so we decided to call it a day and head back to the resort. As we head out there is the end of day Star Wars conclusion going on so we have to stop to watch that. Then it stops raining so we decide to go ahead and stay and watch Fantasmic. Then we leave the park and head back to our room. Once in the room I start unpacking and quickly realize that we are missing some clothes. Thankfully this is while Tony went to refill our refillable mugs. I search frantically but realize that I missed a drawer while packing and forgot his underwear and socks (of all things). He comes back to the room and I tell him and he is NOT happy. So I call Royal Pacific and have to verify the items I am missing over the phone (that was interesting) and learn that I also forgot our phone and iPad chargers. Ugh! Tony was not very happy to have to drive clear back and get them but obviously would need clean underwear in the morning. I use this story to this day to remind him not to rush me while packing! AND IT WORKS LOL!

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 6 – Carley’s Birthday Celebration!
The original plan had been to go to Animal Kingdom today but we decided it would be more fun to celebrate Carley’s 2nd birthday in the Magic Kingdom! We walked into the Magic Kingdom and met with Daisy and took the usual pictures in front of the castle.


Then we went and spent some time in Fantasyland riding some attractions that Carley wanted to ride. Haley was really wanting to see Merida so we spent some time in line to meet her. That area was set up really neat and the girls got to color pictures and Haley got to shoot a bow!

For dinner, we headed to Chef Mickey’s to celebrate the birthday girl! She was pretty shy towards the characters, all except Minnie who was her favorite. She even got a cupcake for her birthday!

We then headed back to the Magic Kingdom and saw that Rapunzel would be back shortly. This Rapunzel was awesome and so sweet. The girls were the first in line so she came and sat down with them and started talking to them like they were already best friends. This was both of the girls’ favorite meet and greet of the entire trip!

After a few more rides and Haley’s first time on Splash Mountain, we decided to call it a day. The next day we headed to Hollywood Studios because we wanted to take in some of the Star Wars Weekends fun. Carley ran up and hugged a Stormtrooper who was walking Darth Vader to a break. The Stormtrooper was really cute with her even though the cast member was not very happy about the incident 
We took the girls to see Disney Junior Live on Stage and Carley got to meet Jake. Haley didn’t want to see many of the characters because she already feels she is too big for them!

The show was really cute and Carley will be so excited to go back and see it now that Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First are included in the show. This next trip, I was planning on skipping Hollywood Studios completely until I heard that Sofia was starting meet and greets so now we will be headed over for a morning at least. We also stopped and watched the parade, which I am glad since they have discontinued it. Of course, Carley seems to sleep through all parades.
Tony like checking out all the Star Wars characters. The girls were worn out so we left the park early and took some family pics before catching the bus back to the resort to go swimming.

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 7 – Carley starts acting like a real princess 
Monday we headed to Epcot because we had a princess lunch planned. The bus seemed to take forever that morning and Carley was getting grumpy already. We got on the bus and this happened….

When we got there, the light sleeper then let us put her in the stroller and stayed like this…

I knew we were in trouble then. I did manage to get one not crying photo right before lunch. After that, the Snow White picture is a very accurate picture of how the lunch went. She was so bad that after we were done eating I took the girls to the restroom to change out of their dresses and we totally came out at the end of the little party where they dance all the little girls around. Needless to say, Haley was NOT happy she missed it.


After lunch we toured World Showcase. Haley wanted to meet Mulan since we hadn’t met her before so I found a cast member and figured out where to start a line for her meet and greet.

Then there was some posing all around World Showcase. Carley was still in a rotten mood but Haley was enjoying having her picture taken, which is unusual for her.



Somewhere in there we had to change Carley’s clothes because she dumped and entire drink on herself lol. We spent quite a bit of time exploring World Showcase. We also met Marie and Alice. We then headed back to Future World for some exploring before calling it a day.

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 8 – Lot of rain and more unhappy Carley
It rained most of the day at Animal Kingdom. Unfortunately not the spotty showers but annoying pouring rain. Haley got to ride Kali River Rapids twice (we were already soaked) and rode Dinosaur for the first time. We saw Festival of the Lion King for the first time as well. We decided that we had enough of the rain and got a couple of photopass pictures before leaving the park.


We then headed back to the resort because we were planning on taking the boat to Downtown Disney. While waiting in line for the boat, Carley had a throw yourself on the ground and kick and scream fit. Tony took her back to the room and told me to take Haley to Downtown Disney by myself and he would feed Carley and put her to bed. It started pouring while on the boat and they shut down the boats because of lightning when we got there. We were running around trying to find a place to eat in the pouring rain but everything had a ridiculous line. We spent some time at World of Disney and then grabbed ice cream at Ghirardelli (nutritious dinner I know) and headed back to the resort.

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 9 – Our final day and Carley is finally in a good mood 
We went back to the Magic Kingdom to do whatever the girls wanted to. There were still quite a few characters they wanted to see so that was at the top of the agenda. First we went to Jasmine.

Then to see Tiana. Tiana absolutely adored Carley and paid so much attention to her!

Haley wanted to ride Splash Mountain again because it had been down the last time she had wanted to ride. While we were waiting, Carley and I got in line to meet Woody and Jessie.


Then we went to see Pooh and Tigger.

Haley said she wanted to meet Tinkerbell and wanted to wait even though the line was an hour long. So Tony took Carley and went off to Fantasyland while Haley and I waited in line. After that long wait and meeting Tinkerbell, we walked out of the building for Haley to say “I knew it! Tinkerbell is not supposed to be that big, so she isn’t real!” I wanted to say if she had just asked me before we got in line we could have spent that hour doing something else but oh well….

After that, we headed back to the room where this was in our window.

The next day, we packed up and headed to Panama City Beach where we stayed a night before driving the rest of the way home.

Going back through all of this is getting me really excited for October! 55 days!

 

[haley'smom44]

The plan is for us to be at Pop Century from Monday October 14th and leave Friday, October 17th. My husband is switching jobs and will no longer have to work every other weekend so I am thinking we could leave on Saturday now instead of Sunday since we are driving. It is about a 15 hour drive. I would like for us to leave right after dinner now on Saturday and drive through the night. That would put us at Disney mid-morning. If our room is ready, the husband can go take a nap for a bit. If not, he can go to the parks with us and then can go back when we receive a text that our room is ready. My plan is to keep the girls out late Sunday night so they will sleep in on Monday morning. Monday is our MNSSHP night so it will be a slow day for us. I want to explore our resort and then walk over to check out Art of Animation. If it is warm enough we might swim a little bit and then it will be nap time. I want to be up and back at Magic Kingdom around 4 in our costumes so we can be ready for the party. I am still trying to justify 2 parties on this trip so we will see haha. We are dressing up as the family from Sophia the First. My youngest will be Princess Sofia, my oldest will Princess Amber, I will be Queen Miranda while my husband will be King Roland. Carley already has a Sofia dress and I am still working on the rest. I am getting excited!

 

[haley'smom44]

Yay! We just hit the 45 day mark! I am SO excited - it just can't get here quick enough I have so much left to do before then though. My oldest daughter is going to be in a local pageant for my town's annual fall festival so that is keeping me pretty busy along with dance classes and gymnastics. Also, I have homework along with my daughter! Anyway - on to day 1 plans!

Plans have changed already! Day 1 is moving up! We are now leaving on Saturday, October 12th. We will not be leaving until the evening so we can drive overnight while the girls sleep. So Saturday will be a long day for us. My husband will work 2nd/3rd shift Friday night so I plan to let him sleep as long as possible so he will be ready to drive all night. I have to take our dog, Bella, to the groomer to be boarded before noon. Then I will just work on getting the car packed. We will have a cooler with drinks and I will make sure to pack snacks for the journey. I also like to have a little bag with small toys, coloring books, crayons, stickers, etc. for the girls to have along with watching movies.

I want to leave between 5 and 6 in the evening. I want to eat dinner and then hit the road. The girls will probably get to watch a couple of movies before they fall asleep. It is a 15 hour drive for us from Indiana. Since we will have to make several stops for gas and bathroom breaks, I am planning on it taking between 16 and 17 hours. Hopefully it won't be too bad since the girls and I will sleep the majority of the way.

 

[haley'smom44]

I am hoping to arrive at Pop Century on Sunday, October 13th by 10 AM. 12 PM at the latest lol. It depends on what time the girls wake up and how many times we have to stop for them that morning. I am hoping to be able to stop at a McDonalds drive-thru and grab breakfast. I will be packing breakfast foods for the rest of the week except maybe 1, so it will be nice to eat a warm breakfast.

When we arrive, I am hoping they will have a room ready. I have not made any room requests. Does anyone have any suggestions for a great room location? I am hoping our room is ready so my husband can lay down and sleep for a few hours.

If it is lunchtime, we might stop at the food court to pick something up. If the girls are grumpy, we might hit the room for a nap before hitting the park if the room is ready.

My plan is to hop on the bus and take the girls straight to the Magic Kingdom. This will be our first trip heading to MK first. We have went to Epcot and Hollywood Studios first in the past. If the room is not ready, the husband will head over with us until they send a text that our room is ready. I am planning on MK because if I am by myself I want to be in the park with the most rides that my daughters can ride on. We want to see New Fantasyland so that is probably first on our lists. A close second will be the Tangled bathrooms as both of my girls LOVE Rapunzel.

Over our next two trips I would like to focus on rides and shows that we haven't seen before. The Magic Kingdom has quite a few for us. We have not done the following attractions at MK- Astro Orbiter, Casey Jr. Splash 'N' Soak Station, Country Bear Jamboree, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Hall of Presidents, Liberty Square Riverboat, Tom Sawyer Island, Tomorrowland Speedway, PeopleMover, Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid, Walt Disney World Railroad (which will be closed in October), and the Carousel of Progress. A few of these attractions will be great when the girls need a slow-down and rest time. We also have not seen the new Dumbo tent so that should be added even though we have rode the ride in the past.

The goal for tonight is to keep the girls up as late as possible. I want them to sleep in the next day because that is our MNSSHP night. We will probably see a few characters today as well. I know we will be tired from the car ride but I am hoping they can make it late. MK is open until 11 that night as of now. That is another reason why I chose MK as our first park - besides the girls will be the happiest there

For whatever reason, it seems the only quick service place we have been in the Magic Kingdom is Cosmic Ray's so I am hoping to try some new locations as well. I really want a waffle sandwich from Sleepy Hollow on this trip. I don't know if I want to wait in a 45 minute line for Be Our Guest for lunch though :-( I also have Peco's Bills on the list to try. Please feel free to give me any suggestions or tips.

It shouldn't be hard to fill up our first day at our favorite place on Earth!

 

[haley'smom44]

Eek! Just did online check-in! Then I customized my magic bands and scheduled fastpass+! I really wasn't sure how I would like it but it was a lot of fun to plan. I'm going to make a couple of small adjustments and then I will post my plans!

 

[Lillabelle0]

Enjoying reading your report! I busted out laughing at the leaving the undies and socks in the hotel room. Perhaps DH will help you pack next time! It seems you quit posting. Hope all went well. I will check for a continued trip report elsewhere. BTW, when we went for SSW, it rained quite often too. We were there the week of Memorial Day in 2012. It was still fun though!

 

[haley'smom44]

So obviously it has been a really long time since I have posted - I have been a bad DISer :-( It's been a stressful fall and winter - it seems like everything that could go wrong did but now it seems like everything is on the up and I need something to keep me busy and sane! Our trip has come and gone and we had a great time! I want to post what our initial plans were before starting the trip report. One thing we were not prepared for - it's just as hot in October as it is in July! Right now after this winter that sounds pretty good though!

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 10 – Here is the plan – will (did) it happen?
The plan was to leave Saturday, October 12th by 6:00 PM. It is over a 15 hour drive from Indiana so we are driving overnight with the hopes the girls will sleep most of the drive.
On Sunday, we hope to arrive at the resort (POP Century) around 10:00 AM and hope to have a room ready for us. If the room is ready, Tony will take a nap (since he drove through the night) and I will take the girls and head to the Magic Kingdom where I will pick up our annual passes. My goal for the day is to take it slow and enjoy Fantasyland with my girls. We have a FP+ scheduled for Be Our Guest for lunch and I am much more excited than the girls! When Tony wakes up from his nap he will take the bus and join us. Our FP+ are scheduled for late afternoon when he will be able to ride with us. Our FP+ for this day are: Under the Sea, Enchanted Tales with Belle, and Splash Mountain. As I have said before, there are many attractions that we have not experienced in our previous 2 trips. They are - Astro Orbiter, Casey Jr. Splash 'N' Soak Station, Country Bear Jamboree, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Hall of Presidents, Liberty Square Riverboat, Tom Sawyer Island, Tomorrowland Speedway, PeopleMover, Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid, Walt Disney World Railroad (which will be closed in October), and the Carousel of Progress. I am hoping to knock a few of them off the list this time. We want to take it slow on this day but still keep the girls up late today. We want them to sleep it on Monday because we are having a lazy morning because we will be attending MNSSHP that night!
On Monday, we are hoping to sleep in. With a 3 year old, that probably will not happen. Our plan is to get up and go exploring! I love the resorts and would like to eventually stay at all of them! We will explore our resort (POP) and then head over to Art of Animation to check out all the buildings there. We plan to eat lunch at the Art of Animation food court and then head back to our room for a nap. After naps, it will be time to put our costumes and get ready for the party! We have FP+ scheduled for Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I have high hopes for all the characters I want to meet at the party . The girls need to meet the princesses with the princes, right?! I also want to see the seven dwarfs, Winnie the Pooh & gang, and Mickey and Minnie in their Halloween costumes. It is also important to see the parade and Hallowishes. The girls’ bedtime is 8:00 PM so it will be interesting to see how they do staying up late!
On Tuesday, we plan for our Hollywood Studios day as it just isn’t a full park day for us. I hope this changes someday. We have to see Disney Junior Live on Stage since Sofia and Doc McStuffins are now part of the story. I want to meet lots of characters – I really want to try and find Character Palooza if I can! We have FP+ scheduled for Tower of Terror, Star Tours, and Toy Story Midway Mania. We will all be tired from the party the night before so we will see what all we can get done. I would also like to do some attractions that we have not done previously. For Hollywood Studios those are – The Great Movie Ride, Honey I Shrunk The Kids Movie Set (will be closed in October), The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow, Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream, The American Idol Experience (which I just don’t have any desire for even though I like the show), and Lights-Motors-Action.

 

[haley'smom44]

Chapter 11 – Here is the plan part 2 – weird making plans for a trip that is over 
Wednesday is Epcot day and I am so excited for The Food & Wine Festival (even though I am extremely picky and don’t like wine ). The plan was to go and hit up the attractions in Future World and then head over to World Showcase. We would be eating at Chefs de France for this first time for lunch. Our FP+ are for Test Track, Mission Space, and Maelstrom. My oldest daughter loves Mulan and Belle so we need to meet them on this day as well. The attractions that we have not done before at Epcot are Test Track (the new one anyway), Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure, and Ellen’s Energy Adventure. Also, Food & Wine Festival is new to us too. We are hoping to at least marking one off the list since I have FP+ for it lol.
Thursday is our Animal Kingdom half day because I really want to do a second MNSSHP party this night. We will see…….  So the biggest priority of Animal Kingdom is………………meeting Pocahontas. Somehow during our previous 2 trips we haven’t met her and Haley insists since this is the only princess she hasn’t met. We have FP+ for Kilimanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest, and Kali River Rapids. The attractions we have not done at Animal Kingdom before are: Conservation Station/Affection Section/Train, Wilderness Explorers, and Flights of Wonder. The bird show won’t happen unless I drink before and afterward because birds really freak me out! We would then head back to the room and change for the Halloween party. My characters to meet at the party (cause let’s be honest – it’s all about what I want lol) are Abu & Genie, Tarzan & Jane, Lottso, Mad Hatter, and the villains!
Friday is our last full day – boo! The plan for today is to finish up anything we want to do. We plan to head to Epcot in the morning. We have an ADR at Via Napoli for lunch – I’m excited because I head this is delicious pizza! Then I want to take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Hopefully we can ride some favorite rides again and we have FP+ scheduled for the 3 mountains. There is another party tonight so the park closes early so the plan is to head to Downtown Disney to eat dinner. Afterward, we need to head back and get some sleep because we have a really long drive the next day.