Halloween in August? I love it! An August 2018 PTR update 7.17

[missangelalexis]

Yikes that's an early wake up call! But it sounds like it will be worth it to be an almost empty Pandora!

The rest of your day sounds sooo fun!

Hmmm, my guess will be the Bon Voyage breakfast!

 

[Nakkira]

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Hopefully we can start our Fastpasses with Frozen Ever After around 2:30 pm. Since we will be entering through the International Gateway, we will start out in the World Showcase. Plans are light for this part of the day, just hopefully meet some characters, take some nice pictures and drink and eat around the world.

View attachment 317197

The Avocado Margarita has become one of my favorite Disney (Epcot) treats. Actually in general I love drinking Margarita's at Disney. Don't know why but they really hit the Spot in the Hot Florida Sun!

 

[suse66]

Garden Grill breakfast

Oh, I love GG breakfast! Such fun interactions with the characters, yummy food and the ability to get on Soarin' early!

Rose and Crown

Also one of our faves, especially sitting out on the patio.

50s Prime Time Cafe

I tried this for the first time last summer and enjoyed it. Loved the fried Boursin cheese with raspberry sauce and fruit.

It also came with one free water park fun option which we probably won't even have time to use, unless we end up adding a day or two more on to our trip.

But I'm very glad we'll be able to park hop now especially since TSL will be open only a couple months when we get there! I'm hoping they either add night EMH or extend park hours in HS like they did with Pandora because it will be very easy for us to walk over to HS at night.

We also booked this week a special event our TA is having at AK during our trip, a Sunrise breakfast in Pandora. I'll share more details when I get to that day in our plans but I'm very excited for it!

Hmmm, I think we are booked with the same unmentionable travel agency. Now I will have to look into getting my niece's ticket there as well checking out the special event.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Yikes that's an early wake up call! But it sounds like it will be worth it to be an almost empty Pandora!

The rest of your day sounds sooo fun!

Hmmm, my guess will be the Bon Voyage breakfast!

I know it's insanely early! Empty Pandora is all that's gonna get me through!

Thanks for guessing!

The Avocado Margarita has become one of my favorite Disney (Epcot) treats. Actually in general I love drinking Margarita's at Disney. Don't know why but they really hit the Spot in the Hot Florida Sun!View attachment 320313

Yesss Avocado margaritas are my favorite!!

Oh, I love GG breakfast! Such fun interactions with the characters, yummy food and the ability to get on Soarin' early!

Also one of our faves, especially sitting out on the patio.

I tried this for the first time last summer and enjoyed it. Loved the fried Boursin cheese with raspberry sauce and fruit.

Hmmm, I think we are booked with the same unmentionable travel agency. Now I will have to look into getting my niece's ticket there as well checking out the special event.

Looking forward to reading more!

I think we are also! I was pleasantly surprised to learn we could add a ticket just for her to the package. Definitely ask your TA about it! I'm so excited about the special event. It's so early but getting to see Pandora almost empty is worth it to me!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Real Life and An Extra Disney Day​

I just have a short update for now because real life is pretty hectic around here.

One of the factors that went into picking a resort was that I wanted to celebrate. Celebrating my sister's progress in school was one reason. But also, I was attacked by a patient at work in March of last year. He finally plead guilty in March of this year to his crime and that's when I decided I deserved to celebrate with a deluxe resort. The whole ordeal finally came to an end on Friday when he was officially sentenced for his crime and will serve 2-4 years for the attack. It's been a hard year but I'm so glad I can finally move on and put this behind me.

Flight prices to come home from Disney are still awful. The good news about this is that we haven't booked our return flight yet.
We've been throwing the idea around of coming home the 31st instead of the 30th.

This week when After Hours dates were announced for the summer and the 30th was one of them, we officially decided to leave on the 31st!




I did this event twice last year and again this March but my sister hasn't had the chance yet! Even though I feel it was much emptier last year, I'm excited to do it again this year!





This was Main Street at the end of the night last year! So empty! Hopefully the summer dates will be just as empty!

We haven't decided yet if we'll add a night at Boardwalk or if we'll just switch to a value for the extra night. It will depend on the flight we end up with on the 31st. If we're flying out early, we'll probably switch to a value since we'll be in the room for very few hours!

Sorry for the short update! I'll be back soon with our day 3 plans!

 

[missangelalexis]

I am so sorry to hear about the tough stuff you've been going through Thank god justice has been served and you can have some closure now. You definitely deserve to celebrate!

Yay, glad you will get to attend DAH! It always looks so fun!

 

[StacyStrong]

Are you at all concerned about number of ADRs versus days? I'm planning a slightly longer trip and I'm worried that 3-4 ADRs will take up too much time

 

[Sailormoon2]

I love your plan so far!! We will also be there over those same dates-doing MNSSHP with a split stay between AKL and the Poly!! Your touring schedule sounds very similar to ours! I was going to do that Sunrise Breakfast (same TA) too for the same reason as my DH has not seen Pandora yet, but decided against it for sleep, which as I love to RD, I figured he wouldn't want to get up earlier than he really had to. LOL. Here's hoping we get lots of magical weather!!!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I am so sorry to hear about the tough stuff you've been going through Thank god justice has been served and you can have some closure now. You definitely deserve to celebrate!

Yay, glad you will get to attend DAH! It always looks so fun!

Thank you! I'm so glad to put it behind me now!

I'm excited to attend it again. Each one I've attended seems a little more crowded so I'm interested how a summer one will be.

Are you at all concerned about number of ADRs versus days? I'm planning a slightly longer trip and I'm worried that 3-4 ADRs will take up too much time

I'm not concerned personally. We travel to WDW pretty frequently and we are rope drop to park close people. For us, ADRs are a kinda "break for us", especially in the summer. That said, 4 ADRs definitely seems like too many for one day. We usually don't exceed 2 and if we do a 3rd, it's usually after the park closes at a resort!

I love your plan so far!! We will also be there over those same dates-doing MNSSHP with a split stay between AKL and the Poly!! Your touring schedule sounds very similar to ours! I was going to do that Sunrise Breakfast (same TA) too for the same reason as my DH has not seen Pandora yet, but decided against it for sleep, which as I love to RD, I figured he wouldn't want to get up earlier than he really had to. LOL. Here's hoping we get lots of magical weather!!!

Thank you! I'm still dying to stay at AKL! A split stay between AKL and Poly sounds amazing!!

I totally understand choosing sleep lol! Yes magical weather sounds good to me!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Day 3: You are a Toy!
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If anyone is still here with me, I greatly appreciate you. I have no excuse for the long delay except that I am a terrible updater! I will try try try to be better! Did anyone make it out to see Incredibles 2 yet? My sister and I double dated with our BFs on Thursday to see it. Jack Jack and his powers are so cute!

But, it's been long enough-- onto our day 3 plans!

Our day starts with a breakfast ADR at 7:30 am because apparently we are really going to test out how long we can survive on the #nosleepindisney concept. It's highly possible that we will kill each other at some point during this trip. Stay tuned.

@missangelalexis had an excellent guess with the Bon Voyage Adventure breakfast, but that isn't until later in the trip for us. This morning takes us to the Beach Club to Minnie's Beach Bash Breakfast!

We've enjoyed this breakfast in the past. It's never crowded, we can eat and meet the characters quickly with great interactions and still rope drop a park! Plus, I saw that Daisy was added to the line up now so I'm excited to meet her there now!







After breakfast, we're headed to Hollywood! Hollywood Studios that is.

Our fastpass day is in a few days and this is the day giving me the most angina! Even though we're hoping to try to fit in visits to Hollywood Studios on other days of our trip, we only have time for 1 full day in the park so this will be the only day we have pre-scheduled FPs here. My hope is to FP Slinky Dog, rope drop Alien Saucers and hopefully Toy Story Mania will be manageable after Aliens since it's not new or SDFPs will be available. If we're unable to FP Slinky Dog, I'm thinking we'll have to cancel breakfast and get to DHS extra early for rope drop.

Moral of the story: cross your fingers and your toes and whatever else you can think of for me that we will get Slinky Dog fastpasses and I can decrease my stress level by a zillion percent.

Our other two fastpasses for the day will be Rock and Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror (my favorite!).

We have a late lunch ADR so we'll likely grab something to share at Woody's Lunchbox to hold us over until 2:30 pm when we will be eating at 50s Prime Time Cafe.

This has become a must-do for me every trip and Kimberly has never eaten here before so I'm excited for her to get to experience my love for it.

This sampler platter is my love. If I had any cooking abilities, I would try to replicate it every day at home!



Our other Hollywood Studios priorities include characterpalooza (we've met some awesome rare characters there!), Beauty and the Beast show and the Frozen Sing-a-long. I'd also like to stop off in the Baseline Tap House for a drink because neither of us has seen it so it would be nice to see something else new! We'll end our park day seeing Fantasmic which we both love! I have a video on my phone that's too long for me to upload. It's Pluto at characterpalooza charade-ing the entirety of Fantasmic for us which was THE most phenomenal character interaction ever!

After Fantasmic, does anyone think we're planning to do the normal thing and go back to our resort and rest?

If you guessed no, you've been paying attention.

Kimberly has never been to Trader Sam's or had dinner at Ohana (only breakfast), so our plan is to head to the Poly. We have a 9:55 reservation at Ohana because apparently our goal for the day is to gain 30 lbs. But really who can turn down this deliciousness?!








Then after stuffing our faces, we'll have a drink at Trader Sam's (hopefully- it's open until 12:30 so we should make it) and then have to roll ourselves back to our room to pass out for the night!

Our plans for day 4 amazingly have us sleeping in until the sun has come up already ! Our Fastpass day will likely have passed before I update again so I'll post those in the next update!

 

[missangelalexis]

I love the Cape May breakfast! The food is delicious and it doesn't feel as chaotic as some other character meals.

Ugh fingers crossed that you get a slink dog FP! Your DHS plans sound great!

Wooo an ADR trifecta on this day! But you can't resist a meal at Ohana!

Sounds like a long day but it will be so fun!!

 

[BaseballMoM2007]

We will be at the Boardwalk August 29th-September 4th! Also we saw Incredibles 2 this weekend at a local Drive-In Theater and it was so cute!

 

[disvisitorkim]

 

[suse66]

This week when After Hours dates were announced for the summer and the 30th was one of them, we officially decided to leave on the 31st!

Lucky you! Definitely a great way to celebrate after everything you've been through.

#nosleepindisney concept.

Who needs sleep in Disney????

Moral of the story: cross your fingers and your toes and whatever else you can think of for me that we will get Slinky Dog fastpasses and I can decrease my stress level by a zillion percent

Hope you had luck getting SDD!

Our other Hollywood Studios priorities include characterpalooza (

OK, I must know all about characterpalooza! I've never heard of this before.

Then after stuffing our faces, we'll have a drink at Trader Sam's (hopefully- it's open until 12:30 so we should make it) and then have to roll ourselves back to our room to pass out for the night!

Ohana and Trader Sam's makes for a very fun and yummy night!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I love the Cape May breakfast! The food is delicious and it doesn't feel as chaotic as some other character meals.

Ugh fingers crossed that you get a slink dog FP! Your DHS plans sound great!

Wooo an ADR trifecta on this day! But you can't resist a meal at Ohana!

Sounds like a long day but it will be so fun!!

Yes that's why I love it! It's a laid-back breakfast but still has characters!

I know- it's a crazy day but there's no where else to fit in Ohana and I need it!

We will be at the Boardwalk August 29th-September 4th! Also we saw Incredibles 2 this weekend at a local Drive-In Theater and it was so cute!

Ooh yayy! Maybe we'll run into you! A Drive-In Theater sounds awesome! I wish we had one!

Ello sister! Feel free to add your thoughts

Lucky you! Definitely a great way to celebrate after everything you've been through.

Who needs sleep in Disney????

Hope you had luck getting SDD!

OK, I must know all about characterpalooza! I've never heard of this before.

Ohana and Trader Sam's makes for a very fun and yummy night!

Thank you!

Characterpalooza is like a surprise group of character meetings. CMs won't answer questions about it and the time and location changes. I subscribe to Kennythepirate's character locator and we've met so many characters there and at character training in Epcot because of it! We've met Darkwing Duck, Robin Hood, Pinocchio and Gepetto, Governor Ratcliffe, Terk, The Evil Queen and so many more! Plus, it's usually empty because it's not announced so the character interactions are amazing. I have a video on my phone of Pluto pantomiming the entirety of Fantasmic! Have I mentioned that we're big fans of it

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Fastpass Selection Day
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Hi all! I don't know about everyone else but I'm ready for it to be Halloween-time already!

I was so excited to find this gem at the Disney Store yesterday for the 25th anniversary of Hocus Pocus.


And this weekend Hallmark had their Christmas in July ornament preview and I added to my entirely-too-large ornament collection
(there's more on the way from the website)

I'm thinking of getting a small tree and doing a Halloween tree this year. Anyone do this?




Also this weekend, my friends and I went to the Tim Burton themed restaurant and the Corpse Bride was there!



So back to the trip planning-

Our Fastpass + day was June 26 and I was really stressing about Slinky Dog and FOP especially being our trip is on the shorter side.

Well when I logged in at 7 am, it refused to acknowledge that my sister had park admission . I was freaking out and just as I was about to call Disney, suddenly it decided to work

Luckily, all went well and I was able to get all the FPs I wanted at the time we wanted them!





The bad news on the planning front is that flights to come home are still crazy expensive. So basically... we may not be able to come home

 

[missangelalexis]

That Hocus Pocus shirt is adorable!!

I had no idea there was a Tim Burton themed restaurant. Need to look into that!

I'm glad you got all the FPs you wanted!

 

[kclark9830]

MDE was crazy on our FP day, too. Grrr! I love that Hocus pocus shirt! I've been itching to get to a Disney store, but the closest one to us is 90 min. away. Sigh.

 

[disvisitorkim]

We leave in a week!!