Disney Overload! Our very Disney Year...DCL Med, ToT 10, MVMCP and SWW

[drlaurafsu]

So I just called Disney to update our reservation with our Magical Express request. M will love this as he thinks the buses are so cool! Last March he did a one day trip with his grandparents during his Spring Break tour of FL and brought home the set of Disney buses as his souvenir.

Since we usually drive to Orlando, this is only the second trip on the Magical Express. DH emailed me last week and said...what if I buy us plane tickets for the trip and get a rental car...totally out of left field!

He was talking about a day at Universal to take M to Harry Potter (he's just started getting into HP - watched 3 movies, we are reading Book 1 and he plays the LEGO video game) but once I explained how costly a single day ticket was he rethought the idea and decided maybe a water park was a better idea. We'll save Universal and maybe Sea World for another visit.

So the current plans are a fairly early flight, luckily we can fly direct, then the Magical Express to Port Orleans Riverside. We stayed here last year for DS's birthday and loved it. Looking forward to going back.

Once we get there and get checked in we are planning to go to Blizzard Beach for the afternoon. I may have to leave a bit early to go over to the RACE EXPO!!

I think I am looking forward to this the most!! I can't wait to check out all the fun stuff. I have been to the race expo for the Peachtree RR which is a huge race...but I suspect there is more fun stuff at the runDisney Expo. I am also going to be on the lookout for costume ideas for the Glass Slipper Challenge. Hopefully I can find stuff that can be ordered later, because I am hoping to be a size lower by then!

Our evening plans are up in the air. I could take M to a park for a bit while DH hangs at the hotel or we could go over to DTD and perhaps go to Disney Quest. If we get 3 vouchers (1 per person) then we would have enough for us to go and then the boys to go back while I am running. This will be another first for us...none of us have been to DQ.

Now...the biggest factor in whether these plans hold is...WEATHER. DH has a 3 day PH+WP ticket while M and I have Seasonal passes. So Sunday and Monday are definite park days, but Friday and Saturday are a little more flexible. But just a little.

 

[drlaurafsu]

The BIG day!!

I am going to run my first Disney race!! So excited about this...and nervous! I don't want to get swept...and while I am not planning to stop and get photos...it would be fun to get a couple if there are rare characters on the course.

I don't want to take the whole day off from the parks...but I am planning an afternoon off. So...what to do?


HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!
M loves TSM (of course) and all things Star Wars (of course) so the plan will be to try and sign up for Jedi Training Academy while DH gets FPs for TSM. First up will be to ride TSM...I might make DH ride with M because M gets upset if he doesn't have the high score in the car! LOL! He is very competitive!

Last trip I got 999,999 on Buzz Lightyear and he (while proud of me) was upset that I beat him...so later in the trip he got 999,999 and was super excited. Then we each maxed out again! It was ok though since we each got it twice...LOL!

Back to our regularly schedule touring plan...

Rope drop will be an absolute necessity to accomplish our objectives for the morning. Our morning will likely be a combo of TSM & Star Wars (Star Tours and Jedi Training) with hopefully a quick ToT trip and maybe even a RnR. I haven't been on RnR yet so I'd really like to try it. Not sure M is tall enough. And guessing DH would also like to ride. So it may be single rider line for us.

Then the plans diverge...
Before I leave...MUST. HAVE. CUPCAKE! Or at least get one for later so I'll hit up Starring Rolls. Then I'm headed back to POR for a little R&R before the race. I love the create-your-own pasta at POR so that will likely be my pre-race meal around 2pm. Then I am going to try and nap a bit before getting ready for the race.

As for the boys...who knows? I suspect a combination of Disney Quest, possibly stay at HS for a bit longer, maybe even go to play mini-golf. Or they could hop to another park. Or if it rained the previous day...Blizzard Beach.

They aren't going to meet up with me for the after party...so I'm not sure how long I'll stay for that. I definitely want to see the Villians so I'll make sure to stay for at least a little while. But I know we will have a full day touring tomorrow so I will need some sleep!

 

[drlaurafsu]

RECOVERY DAY

To appease DH who is reluctantly coming along on this trip...I tempted him with the promise of the Food & Wine Festival. We were able to attend F&W last year and I'm pretty sure that I could make Disney an annual event so long as it is centered around F&W for DH. And that's without even doing any of the special events!! He just loves being about to try the foods from the different countries.

So the plan today is to hit up EPCOT. We may sleep in a bit to recover from the race (and my late night) but we can't be too late because I am sure M will want to do Soarin and Test Track as part of the deal for humoring his father.

Me - I want to try the new French Ice Cream place. And just wander. Nothing else in particular I want to see or do. Last couple of trips to EPCOT were so rushed, I'd like to make this one a bit more leisurely.

The only thing stopping us from that however is...

MNSSHP!!!

M & I will attend the MNSSHP because it is absolutely my favorite! We went twice last year and had a blast. We did characters and rides mostly one night and then parade and fireworks the other. We didn't do much trick or treating but we did come home with the motherlode of candy.

M's favorite ride is Barnstormer so we had to ride that one last time before we left. There is both a Trick or Treat stop and trail right there by it so we hit those as we were leaving. They closed both right after us...so they dumped all the leftover candy in our bags. It was an insane amount of candy! At least 5 gallon ziplock bags of it...you should have seen us on the bus on the way back to the hotel!! I'll see if I can find a picture.

My plan is to get there around 4pm. If we get there early we can enter on our APs and get bands later...otherwise we'll just use our MNSSHP tix.

More prep is definitely in order for this part of the trip...and I'll have to balance characters with those we will see at MVMCP. Special costumes and rare characters will be highest on the priority list.

 

[drlaurafsu]

Hold

 

[annmarieda]

Just wanted to say hello. I will be following your plans. Not sure how much I will post, because I tend to fall behind on every thread I sub to... I just wanted to let you know you have a reader.

 

[drlaurafsu]

Welcome!! I was beginning to hear the a slightly altered version of Billy Idol..."talkin to myself" in my head.

Been a tough week as DH has been in Seattle all week. So between my long commute (nearly 30 miles each way with a stop in the middle to drop DS off at school), training runs/workouts, Back to School night last night and a Back to School picnic today...the evenings have been very rushed.

But the good news is I've managed all of that, especially the two training runs! And I've mapped out my 8 mile run for tomorrow! Good thing we don't have anything planned for the weekend except baseball practice and trainer as I'll be completely wiped out after all that!

I do plan to start added photos on here this weekend. So it should be a little more interesting after that...

 

[annmarieda]

Good for you in getting so much done! It is not easy to fit all that in, I am sure!

Tomorrow I was planning a long run... but my dd talked me into a dog walk (kinda like a race..but with walking and dogs...will be about 2 1/2 miles) It takes place at the time I would normally go and run... so I either have to get up VERY early or go later in the day for my run. The temp is down today, so I think an afternoon run wouldn't kill me today. Not sure about tomorrow though...

have a good run tomorrow! 8 miles! ToT is right around the corner!!!

 

[drlaurafsu]

I did it! 8 miles in under 2 hours...plus about a 10-15 min break. About 3 1/2 miles in I was suffering. Needed a bio break and my feet had gone numb. I had a 4 mile loop that I was going to run twice so I still had a little ways to go before I passed the house. So I ended up walking a little extra and stopped a little longer because of course M needed me to get him something to drink and DH was still sleeping and so on and so forth.

But I am happy to say the second loop, once I got a little water and my clif shot blocks which I had forgotten was much better and I was even able to stretch some of my 2min run/2 min walk intervals into 2 1/2 / 1 1/2 intervals. Legs are definitely tired. Going to have to get my trainer to help stretch me out a little extra tomorrow.

Plans for the weekend: 1st baseball practice later today and trainer tomorrow. Other than that I hope I can finally start working out our cruise photos!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I'm finally here! Love the plans so far, we have much in common, I had PF as well...ugh, I hope it never returns! I cannot wait to see some pictures!

 

[drlaurafsu]

Welcome Karen!

I added a couple of photos...so at least you guys can see me! And also my handsome little guy!! The intro photos are from our cruise. The guys sort of humored my photo obsession by letting me drag them into pictures.

And of course I had to add my favorite one from SWW this year. At that point M really had very little idea who these characters were...he had only watched the 3 original movies and played the video game. But now he has seen all the movies.

I have tons more from the cruise to add and I'll get there...its been a month and I finally got around to downloading them this weekend...so that's progress right? I need to spend some time thinking about reservations for Princess Weekend! I am really hoping for a Play, Stay and Dine Pin or public offer so I figure I should at least make the reservations just in case! I've never done DDP before so this would be a totally new experience for me. We've had the Tables in Wonderland card this last year and that worked out great for us.

I really want my mom to come with me for this one...and I think it would be a blast to have all the great meals planned out. Plus with the 2 races I think we'll likely take advantage of resort restaurants for the first couple of days before hitting the parks after the races.

My window opens tomorrow...so better get busy!

 

[annmarieda]

I did it! 8 miles in under 2 hours...plus about a 10-15 min break. About 3 1/2 miles in I was suffering. Needed a bio break and my feet had gone numb. I had a 4 mile loop that I was going to run twice so I still had a little ways to go before I passed the house. So I ended up walking a little extra and stopped a little longer because of course M needed me to get him something to drink and DH was still sleeping and so on and so forth.

But I am happy to say the second loop, once I got a little water and my clif shot blocks which I had forgotten was much better and I was even able to stretch some of my 2min run/2 min walk intervals into 2 1/2 / 1 1/2 intervals. Legs are definitely tired. Going to have to get my trainer to help stretch me out a little extra tomorrow.

Plans for the weekend: 1st baseball practice later today and trainer tomorrow. Other than that I hope I can finally start working out our cruise photos!!

Good for you! Way to get it done!!!

 

[drlaurafsu]

Been a couple of days of crazy here...

Baseball practice Saturday and Monday, trainer for DH and I on Sunday plus lots of laundry and discarding toys and old clothes from M's bedroom and playroom. We have big piles of both ready to find new homes. Next I need to work on my closet!!

Ran today on the treadmill at the gym. Picked up my TM pace on both the walks and runs and went with slightly longer run intervals. It felt great! Amazing...TM running has always been so hard to me. I'd much rather run outside...well maybe not much...but it was usually easier if there weren't any hills. This was a great pace for me and my HR is coming down quickly on the walk intervals.

I need to try and make dining reservations tomorrow morning for the Monday after the Princess HM! I want to do both a breakfast and dinner reservation although I don't know where yet. Hmmm...thinking dinner at Be Our Guest if I can get them. I've been but my Mom hasn't...she's only seen it in the previews when they weren't serving.

Getting so behind on all of this!! But my cruise DVD finally came yesterday... so I can upload some of the fun character shots we got! And I am working on my shots from the cruise too so over the next few days/weekend I'll get that stuff posted! So much fun...I hope we get to go back to Italy and Greece soon. I know DH is already talking about those being our next big trip...although I am still holding out for London for Christmas 2014.

 

[drlaurafsu]

Well...I was reading this week that Port Orleans Riverside was going to be testing Magic Bands and Fastpass + in October and decided that with our crazy schedule we should try and get in on the testing.

So I logged onto the Disney website and low and behold...I could order the bands. And even better, I could select up to 3 FP+ options per park, per day. Since we will only have a morning at Hollywood Studios I opted for TSM, Star Tours and ToT. DS can't ride RnR so DH and I can do the single rider line if we want to do that one. DS wants to do Jedi Training so this lets us sign up for that and still have a chance at getting a couple of TSM rides in during the morning.

For Epcot, DS and I will be leaving early to go to the MNSSHP so TT and Soarin were key. I also requested Mission Space, but we might opt to change that one later if I can't convince him to go on it. Again this gives us the 3 biggies up front and we can head to WS after for a bit, before we leave DH at Food & Wine.

I honestly can't recall what I picked for the third thing at MK. I know the Speedway was one, because DS loves that stupid ride and it is such a horrible wait. I think the others were Buzz Lightyear and Big Thunder Mountain. Again they may change. Was disappointed there was no Astro Orbiter since that is such a horrible slow line and DS loves it too.

I am really hoping that we will get to do FP+ in Nov at POP. Since it will just be DS and I, it will be even harder to get Jedi Training and TSM in without FP+. And on our arrival day, we will be getting to MK around 4pm for the MVMCP. With FP+ we will get to request FP times between 4-7 which would be impossible to get when we arrive. So 3 definite rides of our choice without the lines will be awesome!

Hopefully by Oct the bugs will be worked out of the system a little better than some of the Aug reports. They will definitely have a lot more experience with it by then. Until then I am stalking the reports to see how things are changing.

 

[annmarieda]

I am so anxious to see how the magic band and fast pass system work. Yay for getting in on the testing!

 

[drlaurafsu]

For our surprise trip in Nov, I've been waiting to see if we could book FP+ reservations by checking every few days to see if they were available to schedule. This morning when I checked in I could make reservations!!

The key here is we are arriving on Friday afternoon and should hopefully be at MK around 4pm (shooting for a tiny bit earlier). M and I have tickets for MVMCP that evening but since we have our annual passes we can get in even before 4pm. I made 3 FP+ reservations for our pre-7pm time period. We might miss the first one...it ends right at 4pm, but I figured its worth having in there.

On Saturday the plan is to go to HS. So the morning rush to try and do JTA sign ups and TSM will be challenging by myself. So I booked a FP+ for TSM, Star Tours and ToT for the afternoon. This will give us time to do the morning activities when things are so rushed...and still have all these to look forward to in the afternoon. ToT may be swapped for Fanstasmic once it becomes available as neither of us have seen it yet. I don't want to fight the crowds and we are usually long gone from HS by that point in the day since RD is such a must do there.

I managed to get in my 9 1/2 mile run yesterday. M saw the GSC on my countdown app (I made it hot pink so it would look girly) and asked what it was. Told him it was a princess race for girls (not where though) since I am not planning on him coming with me. Fast forward a couple of days and he asks me...if boys can come watch. He wants to cheer for me. Too stinking sweet...whatever am I going to do...

 

[annmarieda]

For our surprise trip in Nov, I've been waiting to see if we could book FP+ reservations by checking every few days to see if they were available to schedule. This morning when I checked in I could make reservations!!

Nice! Sounds like you made some great plans!!!

I managed to get in my 9 1/2 mile run yesterday. M saw the GSC on my countdown app (I made it hot pink so it would look girly) and asked what it was. Told him it was a princess race for girls (not where though) since I am not planning on him coming with me. Fast forward a couple of days and he asks me...if boys can come watch. He wants to cheer for me. Too stinking sweet...whatever am I going to do...

Way to go on the 9.5! Funny... I did 9.5 on 9/7. Is this the day you did as well?

And... so sweet that he wants to cheer you on!!!

 

[drlaurafsu]

I think it was the same day...I was going for 11 yesterday. At about 2.8 I felt a pop in my right lower calf. Sat down on the curb and called DH to come get me. Wanted to cry...so close to the race...and no idea how bad it is.

Came home and iced and rested. It was hard to walk most of the day yesterday. Slept in one of my compression sleeves last night and have had one on most of the time since.

It definitely feels better today, although it is still sore. I went to my trainer who did a short upper body workout with me and then lots of stretching and rolling. Based on the location and severity (or lack of in some stretches) pain combined with how much better it feels to today, he thinks its a strain due to my foot turning out when I run.

So more ice, rest, compression and will do a couple more stretch sessions with him this week plus maybe get on the exercise bike a little at home to do some very light cardio and get the blood flowing to it.

In other news we got our MNSSHP tickets and I have linked them up with our magic bands and MDE accounts. I also found out the Magic Bands unlock a special code for Disney Infinity...which M is getting for Christmas. I have ordered all the different things for that so some will come from us...and some from Santa.

The other bad news is that in prep for our basement remodel which starts in a week, I was installing some new closet shelving in DS's playroom closet. In the process I managed to put a hole in a pipe for the coolant to the upstairs AC unit. So all the coolant came rushing out as I put a big hole in the wall to make sure it wasn't water...we have had many water issues in this house so I am terrified of water. But now we have no upstairs AC until we can get someone out to make repairs. And who knows at what cost. I guess the only positive thing about it is...at least it's much cooler this week than last.

Been a frustrating day...and I haven't even started painting yet. Hopefully I can't screw that up too bad. Its in an unfinished area.

 

[annmarieda]

Sounds like you have had some bad luck lately! I hope it gets better... the calf and the home improvements, cause ya know what is right around the corner.

If I don't say it before the race... have an excellent time!!!

 

[drlaurafsu]

The first of the 3 upcoming trips is upon us!

Its been so busy here between baseball, soccer, home renovations, travel, work, etc I really have no idea how this trip snuck up on me!! But we leave in the morning.

I've been working very hard trying to get my leg back in shape to try and do the race. I've made some progress although I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to run as much as I had planned. I am still going to do the race and hope I can manage to stay ahead of the sweepers. It may mean I need to do either a 10 miler or half later in Oct or Nov so I can get a time for the Glass Slipper Challenge.

Our plans for tomorrow are to fly out before 8am!! Magical Express from the airport to check in. We will check everything except one big tote bag holding our electronics and pool stuff. We are planning to head straight to Blizzard Beach when we get in. DS will likely get a waterpark/disney quest annual pass since they plan on doing both this weekend and its only $18 extra to get the pass. I'll likely get the WP pass especially if I can add on the DQ option later...if DS loves it as much as I think he will.

Blizzard Beach closes at 5pm so I will likely leave a little early to go back and change before heading to the expo. By the time I get done the boys should be back at the hotel and either I will meet them there or possibly DTD if they want to go there for the evening.

Our Saturday plan is to hit Hollywood Studios early. DH will likely leave a bit before us to go to the hotel to watch our football game at noon. Then DS and I will meet him there in the early afternoon. After that I'll hang at the resort while the boys likely head to DQ or the pool or possibly even back to the parks. We'll see. Then its RACE TIME!!!

 

[drlaurafsu]

Been a while since I posted an update! Need to post some details on our ToT trip. Hopefully this weekend I can sit down for a little bit and detail our trip. I need to get on it since our next trip is in 2 weeks!!

The quick run down...finished the race, loved POR (AB this time, +/- over Magnolia Terrace), Magic Bands worked great, MNSSHP was good, DQ was lame but DS loved it.

Other news...my BFF is planning on coming with me for the Princess HM weekend! Yay!! We've needed to do a girls weekend again...and this is the prefect weekend for it! Can't wait!