I'll make any excuse for a WDW trip! An Oct 2020 PTR, Updated 3/1

[PhoenixStrength]

Hi everyone! It's been quite a while since I did one of these, but I'm ready to get back into it!

To start, let me introduce myself! I'm Stephanie and I am a self employed, independent contractor just outside of Baltimore, Maryland! I also recently got to fulfill a dream and I am now also a travel agent, helping people take their dream vacations. I've been married to my fantastic husband George for almost 4 years (will be over 4 years by the time of the trip!). Here we are on our trip earlier this year:




This trip will be my 13th WDW trip and George's 6th, and our 5th trip together. But we are not the only ones on this trip, it will also include 4 other people! The first two are my parents, who I'll just call Mom and Dad in this PTR. They have been to WDW many times and love it. My Mom is more into characters and some rides (she loves rides, but gets motion sickness so that limits what she can do), while my Dad humors my Mom by doing the character pictures too, but really loves to ride every attraction!



Next up is my sister Heather. She is the middle sister (I'm the oldest) and is hilarious. She does have some challenges that will affect this trip so I'll talk about them here. New Years Day 2010 she was hit by a woman who was drunk and on 5 illegal drugs. The woman ran a red light at 50+ mph and T-boned Heather right in the driver's door. I had the incredible coincidence of driving past the accident scene right after it happened, before emergency crews were even there. I didn't realize it was her at first as she had a very common car, but glanced in my rear view mirror and recognized her bumper stickers and did an immediate U-turn. I parked as emergency crews arrived and I was able to talk to them as they pulled her from the car. She was in a coma for almost 8 weeks and has some minor brain damage left over from the bruising and swelling, and permanent physical limitations. She can walk, but only for short periods of time due to the damage her left leg took and the surgery afterward that she had complications from, so she will spend most of the trip in a wheelchair. Mostly she has balance issues as her left leg is shorter than her right now, and her left arm is not really functional due to damage it took too, so it throws her whole left side off. While she is able to do a lot on her own, it is not safe for her to live alone with how often she falls so she lives with my parents. Heather has been to WDW multiple times and enjoys the rides, though she is more cautious since the accident as she is afraid of causing herself brain damage (an irrational fear but one we can't really blame her for having). She is on the right in this picture.



The last person in our trip party is actually the other person in that picture, and that is my cousin's daughter, who I will call K. She is 13 and this will be her second trip to WDW. Her first trip was with my Mom, Heather and our other sister Lisa 3 years ago and she loved it so much, from the characters to the food to the rides. Her parents work hard but can't really afford to take WDW trips, so our family has taken her them on our trips.

So that is the who for the trip, I'll be back soon with more of the details on the when, where, how and more! ​

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm here! So excited to read about your plans!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I'm here! So excited to read about your plans!

Lisa! I'm glad you are here!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Hello again all! I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Mine has been spent with laundry, and cleaning, and my Aunt's 70th birthday lunch, and still getting some relaxing in too!

I think I'll start with the basics of the trip, then get more into how it came to be and other details! So:

When: March 28, 2020 to April 4, 2020
Where: Walt Disney World, of course! Actually, George and I are staying in a standard room at POP Century, while my parents, Heather and K are staying in their RV at Fort Wilderness campgrounds.

How: We are all 6 travelling down in my parent's RV. They have to, because that's where they are staying, and we figured why pay for airfare when we can ride with them! We will help them with gas money of course, but that's still much cheaper than airfare.

Why: Well, I don't think I need to justify why we want to go to WDW to anyone on these boards, so I'll go into why these dates and how the trip came to be!

The super short answer is that my cousin S is having her wedding April 4, 2020 in Georgia, so George and I decided to take advantage of being down that way already and made a WDW vacation of it!

The longer answer is, well, long. You may have noticed that I wrote it as my cousin is having her wedding, not that she is getting married. She actually got married on April 4th of this year, but just did a quick courthouse ceremony so they decided to do the full wedding on their 1 year anniversary.

The reason for them doing the courthouse wedding is very sad. S has 2 kids from her first marriage. At the end of January of this year her 19 year old son was killed in the line of duty. He was a deputy sheriff and was killed in a car accident while going to pick up a prisoner for transfer. My cousin and her then-boyfriend had been talking about marriage, but they had been waiting to get engaged because she wanted both of her kids to be there for the proposal, and with her daughter being a nurse and her son a deputy sheriff it was difficult to line up schedules. After her son's death they realized that they couldn't take time for granted and S's now-husband proposed on the beach with her daughter present and they got married very soon after at the courthouse and let everyone know about that and their plan for a "real" wedding on their 1 year anniversary.

So, after hearing about their plans, George and I talked and decided to plan a WDW vacation either ending or beginning with the wedding. After noticing that going after would get us close to Easter and before would have us arriving on my birthday, we went with before. I told my Mom about our plans and they decided it was a great idea and that the 3 of them would come too. K was added on about a month or so later after my parents decided they really wanted to take her and after clearing it with K's mother and stepfather, and with S. They needed to clear it with S as S is my cousin on my Mom's side and K is from my Dad's side and K would be coming to S's wedding. They have met as S lived in MD until 5 years ago and both sides of my family regularly get together for parties and such and get along quite well. S was fine with it, so we surprised K with the news of a WDW vacation on her 13th birthday this summer.

I think that is all of the planning and such leading up to booking the reservation, so I'll stop there for today. Next time I'll get into more details of our plans while at WDW, like what parks and ADRs!​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh wow! After a tragedy like they experienced, I don't blame them for getting married quickly and renewing their vows later.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Oh wow! After a tragedy like they experienced, I don't blame them for getting married quickly and renewing their vows later.

Yeah, it didn't help too that when my cousin and her now-husband left from making the funeral arrangements, 2 days after her son was killed in a car accident, they were hit by someone and her car was totaled. Thankfully they were both fine, he had a hairline fracture in his wrist but otherwise just a bit bruised. But that was another scare and confirmed they couldn't take anything for granted.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Sorry for being MIA for a bit, I've been sick the last 2 weeks. It started as allergies, which became a sinus infection, then an Upper Respiratory Infection and then the flu! So I've been mostly resting and trying to feel human again and am finally starting to be able to function normally. Still have an annoying cough, but unfortunately I'm one of those people that has a cough for 2-3 weeks after being sick, every time. Doctor has said it's because of my asthma, and how being sick affects my lungs, but who knows. Since I am feeling better I wanted to get another post done on this PTR!

So, I guess I'll start with our plans for each day! The day before we leave, Friday the 27th, George and I will be off work. My Mom and Heather don't have jobs, so they will be home too. And my other sister, Lisa, is also taking off work the entire time we are gone as her own kind of staycation. This is important because she is taking care of all of the animals while we are gone. My parents and Heather have 1 dog and 4 cats, and George and I have 1 dog and 2 cats. Add that Lisa has 3 cats of her own, and everyone realized it would be difficult to take care of them all in 3 different houses. So, all animals are staying at my parents house with Lisa while we are gone since their house in the only one big enough for 2 dogs and 9 cats to be in comfortably. All of the cats and my parents dog have lived together before, as Lisa lived with my parents until last year when she bought her house, and George and I lived there for a bit after moving back to MD a couple of years ago. Only our dog Bindi hasn't lived with them all, but she does go over with us when we visit my parents and she and their dog Gypsie are best buds, so we know it will all work out.

Lisa also happens to be our neighbor, so sometime early afternoon on Friday she will load all 5 cats in her car, I will take the dog (maybe dogs if Lisa has one by then, though she thinks she will wait to make this easier) and some luggage in my car, and George will take the dog pen/crate and rest of the luggage in his car, and we will all head to my parents, which is thankfully only 20 minutes away. We will get the animals and stuff unloaded, get our luggage onto the RV, and the thought is that K's Mom will bring her over after she gets out of school with all of her stuff. Then we will all nap in various parts of my parents house and/or RV until 5:30ish, when my Dad will get home from work. We will have dinner, and then everyone will sleep some more (except probably Lisa) until we have to get up to leave.

Our thought right now is that we are leaving around midnight to 1am Friday night/Saturday morning, so we can arrive by mid-afternoon Saturday. The drive itself is about 13 hours, but when you add in gas stops and food/bathroom breaks for my Dad (since it's an RV the rest of us can eat and use the restroom while we are moving!) it usually takes 14-15 hours. They will drop George and I off at POP Century and then head to Fort Wilderness to get themselves checked in. The plan from there is for us all to meet at Disney Springs after getting all our stuff in our room/parking space

I just realized I am getting a bit ahead of myself. I should explain the basic outline of the trip, as it helps with understanding our dining and park choices! My parents, Heather and K are going to be on the regular dining plan, so they will have 7 QS, 7 TS and then the snacks. George and I decided to get the Deluxe Dining Plan, with the reason being that we are planning on our next WDW trip after this to be a 2 week (or maybe even longer) blowout trip, but wanted to try the Deluxe plan on a smaller (less expensive!) trip first to see if it made sense or not. Honestly we think it will as we both really love food but we figured it was worth testing.

As for parks, we will have 6 full days, and plan to use them all for parks. We decided on one day each at Epcot and AK, and 2 days each at MK and HS. The reasoning being that with the new Star Wars stuff it could take longer to get HS done than one day, especially since only George and I have seen Toy Story Land of our group, so that's 2 new areas to be sure to get stuff done in. And with MK having the most to do it made sense to have that be the other park we spend 2 days in. So, now that I've explained all of that, back to the plan!

As I said, after checking in and getting settled we will all meet at Disney Springs. This will probably be the only time we go to DS since all of our other days will be at parks, and our last day we have to leave early to drive to the wedding. We will shop, explore, whatever else we feel like until our ADR for dinner. This is the only ADR I'm not really excited for, though it's not a bad place, just wouldn't be my first, or even my fifth, choice. But, K had only one request for meals for the whole trip, and that is that we went to her favorite place from her first trip...








It's not that I don't like T-Rex, it's just that I think there are better, and more interesting, options in Disney Springs. But it was her only request so I booked it with no regrets. And it actually worked out in our favor a bit, as when we were all discussing meals we knew we wanted sit down dinner each day, but my Mom and George also really wanted Crystal Palace breakfast at MK one day as Mom loves Winnie the Pooh (and friends) and George loves the puffed french toast. But that would have put them at 8 TS meals, which means paying for one OOP. However, George and I had $100 in Landry's gift cards from Swagbucks (that we had planned on using on our trip this year, but I forgot to pack them!) so we realized they could use those to cover the 4 of them, and George and I would have enough credits with the DxDP to cover ourselves for it.

Our dinner is somewhat early, since we will have left around midnight and some of us at least, most likely my Dad, Mom and me, wouldn't have slept since then. Heather and K can and have slept just fine on past trips, and George can sleep anywhere and anytime (@mickeystoontown , he reminds me of John in that regard!). My Dad will be driving so no sleeping for him, my Mom usually doesn't sleep well in moving vehicles and neither do I. I will try but the plan is really to take a good nap Friday afternoon so that we won't be so tired Saturday without sleep. Anyway, dinner is early so that if we are all tired we can just go back to our resorts after and get sleep if needed. If we aren't tired than we will explore around DS more until we are.

I think I will stop here for now, and get into more of the plans next time, as this is already longer than I expected! Hopefully I won't be sick anytime soon and will be back sooner with the next post! ​

 

[defhermit]

thanks for writing! I'd love to hear more details about the RV and that part of the trip! What are the shower options at Fort Wilderness?

 

[PhoenixStrength]

thanks for writing! I'd love to hear more details about the RV and that part of the trip! What are the shower options at Fort Wilderness?

Thanks for joining in! I will definitely give more RV details and will document the actual trip once it happens too. My parent's RV has a shower in it that they will probably use some, but I know Fort Wilderness has shower facilities too, and they tend to use those more when they go to WDW so they don't use all of their hot water. I don't know the exact layout, I've never actually stayed at Fort Wilderness myself, but I do know they have multiple laundry/bathroom/shower facilities around so that there is always one close enough by for the campers and RVers to use!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I was slacking on the Dis for a week or two and just now got a chance to read the latest update (and write an update on my report as well). Your drive is about as long as our's. MapQuest says 12 hours and 27 minutes but that hasn't ever happened. They don't factor in pee time, stretch your legs time or get your gas or else you'll be on the side of the road time. Depending on traffic, it can take us up to 14 or 15 hours. Girl, we can never get George and John together. They'd never visit with any of us 'cause they'd be asleep. LOL

We enjoy T-Rex but have skipped it the last two trips. I love their appetizer platter as an entree. Lots of goodies to try!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I was slacking on the Dis for a week or two and just now got a chance to read the latest update (and write an update on my report as well). Your drive is about as long as our's. MapQuest says 12 hours and 27 minutes but that hasn't ever happened. They don't factor in pee time, stretch your legs time or get your gas or else you'll be on the side of the road time. Depending on traffic, it can take us up to 14 or 15 hours. Girl, we can never get George and John together. They'd never visit with any of us 'cause they'd be asleep. LOL

We enjoy T-Rex but have skipped it the last two trips. I love their appetizer platter as an entree. Lots of goodies to try!

I've been slacking on the DIS too! It usually takes us about 13-15 hours as well, depending on traffic and road work. We get onto I95 about 15 minutes from our house amd are on it until we get to I4 amd theres always some road construction somewhere!

We went to TRex on our honeymoon and did really like it, even more than we hoped we would. I just wouldn't have picked it as there are lots of other places in DS we havent eaten at yet and want to try. But there will always be future visits to try them at!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Just checking in to see if you had posted any new updates. I'm a major slacker since coming home from vacation.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Just checking in to see if you had posted any new updates. I'm a major slacker since coming home from vacation.

I've been slacking so much! I keep going on the laptop and thinking I'm going to get an update done, then I get distracted by other things and never get to it! I'm going to try to get it done today for real though, I'm home sick so I have more time!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Ugh, so behind again! The past 2 months have been a mix of being sick and being crazy busy so I haven't had the time to get updates done. But I have time today so I am getting an update written while I have the chance!

I left off at the end of the arrival day, where we will eat at T-Rex and relax around Disney Springs before most likely heading to bed early. The next day, Sunday March 29th, we will be our first park day! We are going to be at Disney's Hollywood Studios, the first of 2 days here. George and I will eat breakfast at the food court at POP, while the rest eat their breakfast in the RV. They will take the bus from Ft Wilderness to DHS, while we hope to ride the Skyliner over for the first time! We both really look forward to riding it, it is why we chose POP over the All Stars.

We are still over 3 months out so no FPs yet, but we know SWGE probably still won't be doing FPs for those 2 rides yet, so our tentative plan will be to go there right away to at least do Smuggler's Run (or those of us that can, my Mom and Heather get motion sickness easier so they will probably be in the shops while the rest of us ride it). Assuming RotR is still doing the vitual queue they have now, we will get that as soon as we get to the park too, hopefully. We hope we can get a FP for SDD for everyone, as George and I are the only ones of the 6 of us going that have been since TSL has opened and we know everyone else will enjoy it. And we will probably ride everything else in the park too, or at least everything else we have time for!

Lunch will be quick service somewhere, probably Woody's Lunch Box or Docking Bay 7, but mostly just somewhere close by wherever we are when we all are ready to eat! Dinner will be at our favorite restaurant in DHS, 50s Prime Time. Their fried chicken is the best I've had on property (and I've eaten a lot of fried chicken, including Trail's End and Homecoming!) and George and My Mom both LOVE their pot roast.

Funny 50s Prime Time story George just reminded me of when I told him what I was writing about. The first time we went to WDW together while still dating, over Christmas 2014, we ate at 50s because I already loved it from previous trips. We both got the pot roast (because while I prefer the fried chicken, the pot roast is very good too!) and I had told George about the clean plate club stickers, which he was determined to get. He ate all of his meal, and about 1/3 of mine when I couldn't finish it. Our "cousin" was so impressed he made a big announcement to our whole section about how George hadn't just finished his own plate but also mine, and gave him 2 of the stickers. He was very proud of himself, and he has finished his plate the other 2 times since, but hasn't gotten the sticker again, to his dismay.

Our ADR is for 5:45pm so I'm sure we will have time for at least a ride or two after before the park closes at 8:30pm. Not sure if we will watch Fantasmic! or the fireworks, just depends on how everyone feels that night probably. Once we do leave we will all go back to our respective accommodations for the night, since we have an early day the next day.

I'll get to that on the next update, which should be much sooner than this one was!
​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Guuuuurrrrllllll, I am behind. Like behind behind and am playing catch up once again. The story of George and his clean plate sticker made me laugh outloud. We ate there once and it wasn't for us but we have a very over the top cousin who I was ready to punch in the nose by the time we were done.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Guuuuurrrrllllll, I am behind. Like behind behind and am playing catch up once again. The story of George and his clean plate sticker made me laugh outloud. We ate there once and it wasn't for us but we have a very over the top cousin who I was ready to punch in the nose by the time we were done.

I am behind too, don't feel bad! We love the food at 50s, but I am sure an over the top cousin would turn you off from it. We have been lucky to not have anyone too crazy, as we don't like that. I do think most of them try to match the energy of the table, but not all. At our trip earlier this year our server kinda said the lingo and such, but otherwise was low key with everything and was super sweet, but at the table across from us they were enjoying it and she laid it on thick.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Well, the trip is now less than 4 weeks away, so maybe I should get to finishing this!

So, updates first. My cousin S, whose wedding was the catalyst for this whole trip, now isn't happening. Or, at least not anytime soon. No problems with them, as I said they are already married. But they recently bought a plot of land and are having a house built, and they couldn't afford the wedding on top of that. Our trip is still happening of course, but no wedding at the end of it, which is fine. We will all see them in May, when they come up to DC for a special Armed Forces Day event that her son (along with over 100 others) will be honored at.

Updates to my post about our first full day, at DHS. We got FPs for Tower of Terror, which surprisingly everyone SAYS they will be getting on. We will see if Mom and Heather do, but right now they both want to. I think they will both love it, but it's getting them on it that's the issue! We also got FPs for RNRC, which Mom and Heather won't do because of Mom's motion sickness on dark rides and Heather gets bad headaches from it since the accident so she had to stop riding it. And lastly I got us FPs for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway!

Oh, and we looked at what we were planning on eating versus the cost of the Deluxe Dining Plan and realized it wasn't worth it, so we changed to regular Disney Dining Plan for the trip. No change to ADRs, just won't get appetizers. So, now onto the rest of our trip!

Our next day, Monday the 30th, will be our first Magic Kingdom day. The hours are 9am to 10pm, but we have will be there earlier as we have a PPO 8:05am ADR at Be Our Guest! George and I have eaten breakfast there twice now and enjoy it, and the potential early line access for 7DMT, but the rest have not. We will hopefully ride 7DMT after breakfast, but we will see. Last year it was down for the first 2 hours of park opening so we didn't get to, though we did get to be one of the first to ride Space Mountain instead.

After breakfast we will head into Tomorrowland as we have a morning FP for Buzz, and we will certainly ride most, if not all, of the other rides before moving on. We will head counter clockwise around the park, as that's how our FPs and dinner ADR were planned! We will grab lunch at whatever QS we feel like that day, since we all like several of them. My guess will be Columbia Harbour House but who knows! We have afternoon FPs for Splash and BTMRR, with a dinner ADR for somewhere new to all of us, Skipper Canteen! To be honest I wasn't sure Mom would go for it when she read the menu, as she is not the most adventurous eater and has stomach issues that keep her from eating anything more than mildly spicy (even with the meds she takes). Thankfully she likes several of the options, with sauces omitted or on the side to try, so we are excited to try here for the first time! After dinner we should have plenty of time for more rides before HEA at 9pm. And so will end another magical day!

Our next day, Tuesday the 31st, will be our Epcot day, and the first time for all of us at Flower & Garden. They have 8-9am EMH so we will grab breakfast at the resort, with everyone else eating in the RV. Our plan is to head right to Soarin and then do everything else in The Land and The Seas before heading across Future World. We have FPs for SSE, TT and Mission: Space before lunchtime. Not sure if lunch will be Flower & Garden booth snacks or Regal Eagle Steakhouse, or a combo of both as Regal Eagle is on the far side of World Showcase. Maybe we will grab a snack each at a booth to hold us until we get to Regal Eagle, we will see. The afternoon will be spent exploring World Showcase with dinner at somewhere George and I have eaten before but not the rest.

Initially Mom wanted to go to Garden Grill for dinner, as she knows and loves it. To be fair we all do as it's a great place. But we are eating somewhere with similar food later in the trip, so I convinced her to try somewhere new. I say her, not because no one else matters, but because Heather eats a large variety of foods and looked at the menus with Mom, Dad will eat anywhere and K isn't picky at all, so Mom got final say. So, where are we eating?




George and I ate here for the first time last year and loved it, and I know everyone else will too. Dad loves fish and they have several options, Mom loves steak and chicken which give her options too, Heather is dying for the macaroni and cheese since reading the menu and K likes multiple options herself. George is picking between several dishes still, but I will probably get the same thing as last time, the Beef Tenderloin.





Just seeing that makes my mouth water thinking about it. I've seen some people state it wasn't as good as they hoped, but when I got it every part was fantastic. I hope it lives up to what I remember!

EPCOT Forever is at 9pm so we will watch that since none of us have seen it yet and it will probably be gone by the time any of us come back!

I promise I'll be back soon to get more of this done!

​