It's been 6 years, but we're finally going back: a PTR! UPDATED 2/9 change to August dates?

[tabrizia]

So my Mom finally sent me questions at least about buying tickets. I am hoping to have the info this weekend so I can do their FP+. I am not too worried about most of them, but I would like to try to get them done before 30 days out which is less then a week away! Hoping she actually buys them today.


I am going to work on what we will do each day posts. First I am going to redo day 2, because it has changed a bit with Soarin' closing and all.


Here are the plans now.

DAY 2, Disney Park Day 1: EPCOT!
January 13, 2016


We're still waking up early. I'm still blaming minion 1, even though we will want to be early to make rope drop. We will either eat breakfast in our room or in the food court, or possibly wait until we get there, but that one is unlikely.

This is our first of 2 EPCOT days. It is the EPCOT day with just the 5 of us.

(and yes I will probably repeat pictures I've used before)

Here we are with just Minion 1, when he was 5, almost 6 months old.


We hope to be there before Rope Drop. This is out plan for most days actually.

We'll head right to Test Track along with everyone else at Rope Drop. Hopefully we'll have a fairly shot line and get through it quickly. We'll then head over to Character Connection and meet some characters. I am kind of sad they don't have as many characters there as they did year ago, but still the kids will love it.

After that we will either do another ride, maybe Figment or head to our 9:45 to 10:45 Spaceship Earth FP+. Depending on what time it is after the FP+ we will likely go do Nemo and then head over to our 10:45 - 11:45 Turtle Talk FP+. If we have time we may have a snack before Nemo depending on how hungry the minions are.

After talking to Turtles dude, we'll head to Living with the Land. Hopefully there won't have a horrible wait. We'll then decide on lunch. If we decide on Sunshine Seasons we'll eat then, if we decide to eat at a country (probably Fish and Chips in England), we'll head over and do Figment. After Figment we'll get the Perry game thing and explore the World Showcase, which I apparently have no real pictures of. We will try to do some character and princess meet and greets and we will likely ride the Donald Mexico ride.

We'll likely get a snack around 3 where ever we are. Around 4:15 or so we'll probably head back toward Test Track, if lines aren't bad we might do Spaceship Earth again. We'll do our 4:05 to 5:05 FP for Test Track and depending on when it ends, we'll either explore a bit more, until 5 or head out towards the monorail to Tickets and Transportation. We'll take the monorail and then switch to the resort monorail. Once on it we will get off at the Contemporary resort for our dinner.

I am still a bit iffy on this, but attriel really wants to do it, so we shall. He had an amazing meal here when we went in 2009, so back we go again. The kids should enjoy it, and I am hoping that the reports of a dirty restaurant and horrible food are exaggerated. Anyways we have a 7pm dinner reservation here and we will see how it is.

After dinner we'll likely monorail over to Magic Kingdom and catch the bus back to the resort. I am hoping to be in bed by 10 at the latest for the kids, since we have an super early day the next day at Magic Kingdom!


I have decided against the Behind the Seeds tour. I thought it looked awesome, but it just didn't work based on timing. If we weren't meeting up with family for the last 2/3rds of the trip I would probably have done it since I could have arranged our schedule a bit more to fit in things a little better, but since we are meeting up with everyone it got dropped this time. I am hoping we'll do it when we go back in 2018.

 

[tabrizia]

Okay my Mom said she plans to buy the tickets tomorrow. I'll believe it when she sends me the ticket info. Anyways since everyone in my house is asleep and I have finished organizing the Hanukkah gifts, not wrapping, that is Dan's job, but organizing which ones they get each night, I have some free time so let's post day 3. This may be my favorite day.

Day 3, Disney Park Day 2: Magic Kingdom!
Thursday January 14, 2016

So today is Magic Kingdom day! It should be a super fun day. We have 3 1/2 Magic Kingdom days, but this is probably my favorite day of all 3 1/2 of them at least based on my planning. First it is just us, so we don't have to worry about anyone else. Second it is just us. Third it should be a fairly empty park day. Fourth we get to see lots of Princesses which the girl child will adore!

Anyways to start the day off we will wake up super duper early. I want to make sure we are at the bus stop by 6:45 at the latest. I may give the kids a small snack on our way to the park, but we have breakfast plans!

Once we get to the parks, hopefully without any issues with transportation it will likely be around 7:30/7:45. We will wait to be let in for our 8am Be Our Guest Breakfast!

Now this will be our first time going to the new Fantasyland. Last time we went they hadn't even started the construction on it, it was going to start a week or two after we left I believe. So we'll head back towards our breakfast. I plan to preorder. Attriel will be getting something off the kid's menu probably the French Toast, nothing on the adult menu appeals to him, especially with his whole meat makes him sick thing. The boys will likely get bacon and eggs. I am not sure what minion 2 will get she may even get something off the adult menu depending on what she thinks looks good. I have yet to finalize what I want either, but I have 39 days to make up my mind at least.

After breakfast we'll head over with everyone else to try to catch a ride on 7 Dwarf Mine Train before the rope drop crowd arrives. After that we'll head over to Peter Pan, we'll probably do Small World After that, then work our way around Fantasyland. I would really like to do Dumbo at some point this morning. We have a 11:35 - 12:35 FP+ for the Mine Train and then we might move to Tomorrowland to do Buzz (it will be down the second half of our trip) and People Mover before heading back to Fantasyland (we might also do Tomorrowland before Mine Train, it is up in the air which way we go, it depends on what the kids want to do). We have a 12:40 to 1:40 Belle's Enchanted Tale we will probably try to do that around 1:30 or so. Once we are done we will head over to our 2:20 lunch reservation Cinderella's Royal Table.

I figure all the kids will enjoy eating at the Castle and minion 2 will love all the princesses. I am hoping we end up with Rapunzel I hear she is a possibility, but if not it isn't a big deal since we have a FP+ to meet her later in the week.

After lunch is over we have our most important FP+ of the trip, Anna and Elsa. Our FP+ is for 4:10 to 5:10. I figured that gave us plenty of time to finish up at CRT and still get to see them. If we finish early we will probably do a few more things in Fantasyland depending on the lines. If we finish after the window has opened we'll head right to them.

Once we have seen Anna and Elsa, we have no real plans. We're going to go with how everyone is feeling. If the minions are up for it we will probably do some more rides, I'd like to do Haunted Mansion and the Jungle Cruise at least. If they are tired we'll head back to the hotel. We have no real plans for the late afternoon and evening since we don't know how much the kids will want to do. Our main thought is we aren't doing an afternoon break any of our days, but we have no real plans to stay past 5pm depending on the kids. This could change, but it is our current plan. If the kids are good to go, we'll stay, Magic Kingdom is only open until 8pm this night so if the kids want to we can do Wishes before we head back.

We'll probably grab an evening snack at the food court whenever we get back. If we get back earlier and the weather is decent (in the 70s) we may go swimming. If not we may visit the arcade or just hang our in the room. Either way I figure everyone will be in bed by 10 or so on this night, at least the minions are likely to be.

Our main plan for the day is to focus on Fantasyland and Tomorrowland with maybe some other areas later in the day. We are trying to keep the trip relaxed, especially since this is just the beginning and we know we'll be back for another 2 1/2 days. You may note that there are no parades listed as things I want to do. That is because I tend to find parades boring. If the kids show an interest we might sit and watch one, but in general I would rather ride a ride, I admit it.



I will try to get day 4, our last park day before our whole group arrives, up sometime this weekend. Have a great night all!

 

[tabrizia]

I now have tickets for almost everyone. Still waiting on 2 people. I still need to get info about what FP+ my younger sister wants to do though. I preordered Memory Maker when I got the tickets for my sister. Does anyone know if I need to link people if they are in my MDE account and don't have their own account, or will their pictures just automatically be added to the Memory Maker?

Attriel's account has an allow access to memory maker button, since he has his own account, none of the other people do since I am trying to keep everything organized which means I want no one touching anything.

Oh and apparently even though we had 60 day FP+ I can't do anyone else's until 30 days out, which means I have a few days to go. Fortunately there is really only 1 FP+ that might be hard to get.

 

[NJlauren]

We had a good experience with Chef Mickey in May, listen it's a buffet and I am not a huge buffet person so I do try to limit it to, 1 or 2 a trip, but it was fine. We enjoyed the character interaction and the location.

If you mange the people on you MDE and that's where there tickets are registered and where MM is registered your good. If MM is registered on your sisters MDE I think they all need to be linked as friends to her account but I could be wrong on that.

 

[tabrizia]

We had a good experience with Chef Mickey in May, listen it's a buffet and I am not a huge buffet person so I do try to limit it to, 1 or 2 a trip, but it was fine. We enjoyed the character interaction and the location.

If you mange the people on you MDE and that's where there tickets are registered and where MM is registered your good. If MM is registered on your sisters MDE I think they all need to be linked as friends to her account but I could be wrong on that.

Hooray for a good Chef Mickey review. I am not expecting amazing it is a buffet, I just want decent. I am okay with the Great Wolf Lodge buffet, which is adequate.

No one but attriel and I have MDE accounts. I hold the power for everyone else in my family, because I don't want them messing anything else. Since I have attriel listed as being able to use the MM, it looks like everyone else is good to go, because they will not have their own account and I hold the power of ADRs, FP+ and tickets.

Thank you, that makes my panic about making sure the MM works go down.

 

[tabrizia]

Happy Hanukkah all!

We had a great Hanukkah this evening. We were at my Father in Law's. The kids were happy with their gift, though minion 3, was sad it wasn't a toy. I got all three of them pool bags for swimming and a new pair of googles each. They all got different goggles, these are minion 1's, these are minion 2's, and these are minion 3's. They all work for them. Minion 3's goggles are awesome for younger kids for hate having a strap on the back of their head. Minion 2's are competition googles and she has a pair she likes. Minion 1's are similar to a pair he has and likes, he is not a huge fan of the competition goggles.

Tomorrow night they are getting a WiiU, which I figure minion 3 will be much more happy about. Anyways here they are tonight.


This is minion 2's hanukiah (Hanukkah menorah). We let them chose one in 1st grade and this was her choice.

Here is minion 3 opening his gift

In Disney news:

My youngest sister got back to me about what FP+ she wants. Of course she wants to do Soarin' and Test Track in EPCOT on her first day. I broke the news that that wasn't happening since Soarin' is down. On the plus side that means I don't have to explain the weird tier thing they have happening there. I have her requests for rides though, so once I can start FP+ for her I am good to go.

I have also gotten a second set of ADRs at the same time and same place as my first set for the extra people who didn't know their plans when I was making ADRs this summer. I was able to make a reservation for 5 for our first day with everyone, to go with the reservation for 11, I realized that depending on who is coming I should have gone for 6, but I also decided I just don't care to try to change it. I got an ADR for 2 for our second day, I figure my youngest sister doesn't really want to do Hollywood and Vine anyways, she and my Brother in Law and the baby can go elsewhere. Honestly I'm not sure my 10 year old niece really wants to do it, but she is stuck . I got a reservation for 5 on our EPCOT day at the same time or close enough, so that works. I didn't add to our BoG, since by that time most likely all the others will have left anyways, plus I made it for 13 in the beginning just in case. I did get a 2 person ADR for our Tusker House lunch, but once we know the plans for my niece and cousin I'll likely cancel it, since the chances are they will both be gone by then.

Other then that I am still waiting to figure out when my cousin and niece are coming and for how long. I will start making FP+ for everyone at 30 days out, so I have another week and a half to go.

This week and next week are both still super busy, but I am looking forward to a bit of a break the following couple of weeks until after New Years and then we are less then 2 weeks to our trip! I can't wait. I still need to figure out what we need to get for it. I have a friend making me some shirts for the minions at least. We bought them some shirts for presents. Minion 2 has a ton of princess dresses. I need to check on their sneakers see if they need new ones, check my and attriel's shoes to see if I need to get us anything and then I need to figure out what we are packing. Fortunately since we are flying SW we have lots of checked baggage room at least.

 

[tabrizia]

Anyways since I'm not tired yet, let's move onto out next day in our plan.

Day 4, Disney Park Day 3: Animal Kingdom!
Friday January 15, 2016

Animal Kingdom day. I actually really like this park. We skipped it back in 2001 a few years after it had opened. I kind of regret that now, but we were young, we hadn't done a ton of planning and we were honeymooning. We first visited this park in 2006 and I found that I really like it. I enjoy that you can take your time doing it. I like the shows, well the Lion King one, I still haven't made it to Nemo. I like all the details that went into building it. I even like the carnival sideshow feel in the dinosaur area.

Anyways our plans this day are fairly relaxed. We may or may not make it for rope drop. It depends on how late we left Magic Kingdom the night before (though since it closes at 8, we probably didn't leave too late). We may have a lazy morning or the kids might be ready to go go go. This is also the beginning of the crowds, though they won't really be heading to Animal Kingdom. It is the Friday of MLK weekend which means people will be arriving. I don't really expect it to make much of a different though, since Animal Kingdom is not normally people's first park of choice.

If we get there are rope drop our plan is to go on the Safari along with everyone else. We'll then try to see the Lion King show. If we don't make rope drop we have FP+ for Safari at 10am to 11am. We will explore the area some before heading over to Dinosaur land. Once there minion 1 might do Primeval Whirl depending on if there is a line or not. We'll probably try to do the Dinosaur Dumbo and then the play area fora bit. We have 11:10 to 12:10 Disney Pals FP+ the plan is to go around 11:45 or so before heading out of the park around 12.

We will then catch a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our lunch at Sanaa! I am really looking forward to this lunch. This is one of 2 restaurants that attriel and I scheduled this trip more for us then the kids. I really wanted to try it last time were there and we never got a chance. We have a 1:15 lunch there. We figure we'll explore the lodge for a bit and then either head back to Animal Kingdom or head back to our resort. If we head back to Animal Kingdom we have a 3:30 Lion King FP+ since I think the boy would really like seeing it. We may have already seen it earlier and if we have we'll just move that FP+ earlier and then try to get another Safari FP+.

I've heard that the last hour the park is open is a great time to do rides since it is basically open, so if we go back we'll try to do rides before the park closes at 5. Then I will take minions 2 and 3 back to the room and attriel will go to the car care center with minion 1 to pick up our rental car. Tomorrow is check out of the Disney bubble and into our off property resort day! It is also the day the rest of our group arrives.

Depending on how long the rental car takes to get and how everyone is feeling we will either hang out at the resort in the evening and eat there or head to Disney Springs. If we go to Disney Springs we will either try to eat the T-Rex or Raglan Road depending on if we ate at one of them arrival day or not. Anyways the plan is for me to pack up after we are in the room and for everyone to get to bed by 10. Our morning isn't busy on Saturday, but we do have to check out and we do have breakfast plans.


So that is day 4 and the end of our family only part of the trip, well mostly the end, since we have the next morning without more family too .

 

[NJlauren]

Happy first night of Hanukkah (or I guess 2nd). I love minion 2's menorah. Haha kids, one year we got a nail kit from my mom and I remember my sister hysterically crying that it was a horrible gift. DD sill doesn't quite get the concept so we give her the gifts, light the candles, and she plays with the toys but has no idea what's going on... Maybe next year but next year Hanukkah overlaps with Christmas, and since we do both in our house I think that's going to be confusing!

I have only been to Animal Kingdom once but I found I really enjoyed it too! I think it's great your getting some immediate family time in befor everyone else gets there!

 

[tabrizia]

Happy first night of Hanukkah (or I guess 2nd). I love minion 2's menorah. Haha kids, one year we got a nail kit from my mom and I remember my sister hysterically crying that it was a horrible gift. DD sill doesn't quite get the concept so we give her the gifts, light the candles, and she plays with the toys but has no idea what's going on... Maybe next year but next year Hanukkah overlaps with Christmas, and since we do both in our house I think that's going to be confusing!

I have only been to Animal Kingdom once but I found I really enjoyed it too! I think it's great your getting some immediate family time in befor everyone else gets there!

We do both in our house too. It makes a very expensive December. The last time Hanukkah and Christmas overlapped was in 2011, when the minions were 9 months, 2 years 9 months, and 4 years 9 months. It went fine, since we do Christmas presents in the morning and Hanukkah in the evening. Minion 1 and 2 were both in a Jewish preschool though so the Jewish holidays were discussed fairly frequently.

 

[tabrizia]

So everyone's tickets have now been bought! That part is done. We may need to add days to some while we are there, but we went with our best guess as to how many days made sense. My Mom got my cousin's dates, and we just decided to guess for my niece. Now I just have to wait to make everyone Fastpass+ choices.

It is nice to have the buying ticket part done at least. That means tickets are bought. Our first 4 days have been paid in full. All ADRs are made, and are not changing! Rooms have been secured for the big family part of the trip. We are good to go!

 

[tabrizia]

32 days until Disney!


So I have pictures, but I don't feel like editing right now. I also have the cord to my camera again so I can do the Aquarium mini-trip report. I am still feeling to lazy to do it today though.

In regular life tonight is night 6 for Hanukkah, board game night, hopefully the kids like what I chose for them. Minion 1 has theatre until 7, so won't be home until 7:30 or so.

I am hoping to put up the tree this weekend, if the kids finish cleaning the room. I have new Disney ornaments to put on the tree.

The kids have enjoyed Hanukkah so far.

As for Disney I have been working on the whole rental car thing. I had a decent deal with pickup at Disney and drop off at MCO for Friday through Saturday. I have since found better deals if I pick up at MCO. The deals and enough better that I can rent for the entire period of our trip and still save money vs the rate I found the first time. Which means we might have a car for our whole stay. It won't change transportation for our Magic Kingdom day most likely, but it would change my transportation plans for the other days, we'll have to figure out what we are doing still, at the moment I have 4 different car reservations.

I still can't do FP+ for the rest of our group, but it is on my calendar for next Thursday to start getting everyone else FP+. Hopefully I can get them around the same time as us.

I realized I really can't do my what we are doing every day posts past day 5 until I finish everyone's FP+ too, since they will all be there, or at least some subset of everyone will be there. That being said I can do day 5. There will not be many pictures though.

Day 5, No Disney Park: It's a Down Day!
Saturday January 16, 2016

So we'll start this day finishing up any last minute packing we need to do. Everything will go into the car and we'll sadly check out. On the plus side we aren't leaving Disney, we're just leaving on property living. After we check out we will be heading to breakfast. I actually have two different breakfast reservations. Depending on how Chef Mickey's was on Wednesday night will depend on which one we do. If we enjoyed Chef Mickey's dinner we will be heading back for breakfast at 10am.

If we were not happy with the food or service we will be heading to Park Fare breakfast at the Grand Floridian. I will admit I am kind of hoping for this one because it will be new. We have a 10:30 reservation there which gives us a bit more time to get packed and head out as well, which we might appreciate. Either way we're doing another character meal, shocking I know!

After breakfast we'll probably head over to Disney Springs for awhile to shop and explore. We might do a late lunch at Raglan Road or T-Rex depending on if we have succeeded in eating at either of them yet. It is a lazy day, so we may end up doing something else instead. Either way we will eventually head over to check into our timeshare. We are staying at Summer Bay Resort. I am not thrilled at the distance from Disney, but my parents could only get 1 room at Cypress Bay (where they have their timeshare), and it just logistically makes more sense for my middle sister to take it, since she will likely end up with my other niece and her Mom (my sister's MIL) staying with her for the portion of the trip they are there for. My parents will be staying at Summer Bay in a separate room with my other sister and the baby, plus my cousin. The nice piece of Summer Bay is we have more room and it will only be us there, so we don't have to worry about dealing with anyone else in our space at least. It appears to be about 20 minutes from Magic Kingdom parking, which isn't horrible.

Once everyone has arrived my Mom and I will likely go to the local Target/Walmart/grocery store and pick up snacks and breakfast foods. We'll also do dinner at some point, we'll likely do a random chain restaurant on International Drive at a guess. No clue if everyone will meet up for dinner or if we'll just be going solo or with some subset of everyone.

Really it is going to be mostly a quiet day. If it is warm enough we might even swim. Either way we'll be mainly taking it slow and relaxing while changing to our new home for the rest of our stay.

Either way the plan for us at least is to relax, check out of CBR, and check into our new offsite accommodations.

 

[tabrizia]

30 DAYS! We're at 30 DAYS!


I can no longer edit my magic band choices, hopefully the minions like the colors they chose, if not I got them all new ones from the Disney store, which are here and waiting to go in their stockings. It is starting to feel real.


I need to start making a list of what we still need to get. So far I have glow lights and ponchos.

My friends is making them some shirts and my Mom got them a few, and I bought them a few. I need to check what I have though shirt wise, since I may actually need a few more. Pretty sure attriel has at least enough Star Wars shirts to cover him for the trip. I'm trying to think of anything other then glow lights and ponchos that we still might need, oh and sneaker for me.

Since we are going to rent a car we can stop on our way from the airport at a grocery store or Target and get some water and breakfast type foods, so I don't need to pack those now. I have a couple of small gifts to give them when we get to Disney and a pin set, we're going to get starter sets at Disney, but I got them each a set of pins for trading. I also have gift cards for them to spend on their souvenirs, I need to get them a second one since my sister gave them each $25 at Hanukkah that we decided would work great for more stuff at Disney if they want it.

It really is starting to feel real now. Only 30 days to go and we'll be on a plane heading to Disney World!

Less then a month till Mickey!

 

[bcwife76]

30 days, woohoo!!!

 

[tabrizia]

30 days, woohoo!!!

I know I am so excited!

 

[tabrizia]

So not much to update yet, I still need to look up ponchos at least and put in an oriental trading order for glow things.

I think I mentioned that I have a friend making me some shirts. Anyways she just sent me a picture of the first one. Here is minion 1s shirt, I plan on him wearing it for HS day.

It is awesome, I think he will love it, minion 3 is getting the same shirt and minion 2 is getting a different one. Plus she is doing 2 other sets of themed shirts for them.

 

[NJlauren]

29 days! So exciting, 4 weeks from tomorrow!!!

 

[tabrizia]

29 days! So exciting, 4 weeks from tomorrow!!!

And I am totally counting down. My only real disappointment right now is I don't think I will be able to fit in Skipper Canteen. I don't want to deal with it when everyone has arrived, and we don't have time between BOG breakfast and CRT lunch at 2 on our Magic Kingdom day before everyone arrives. I really like the new menu at Skippers, so I am half hoping we can just walkup for dinner while we're there, it could happen.

 

[tabrizia]

26 days!

So I have just started FP+ booking for everyone else. On that note, my youngest sister and my BIL's first day is booked. I get to do the whole kit and caboodle of everyone tonight. This will be fun. I am hoping to get at least overlapping FP+ for everyone.


I bought a new pair of sandals for the park I got Keen Whispers in Purple. They were on sale for half off which was nice, especially since purple is one of my favorite colors. I wore them today, they were comfy, but my feet were feeling the new shoe thing by the end of the day. I should be able to wear them in by Disney, though I think I'll give my feet the day off from them tomorrow.


My friend is making our Disney shirts, she has finished the first 2 sets, they are awesome. First here is the Star Wars themed set:

For this set attriel and I got a shirt as well.

I love them!

The next set is just the kids.

I love them. She is working on the other two sets still, but they are awesome so far.


Other then the shirts, we're currently finishing up all our stuff before the holiday break and I'm dealing with the holiday stuff. Attriel and minion 1 are at Star Wars right now, but I expect them home soon. I hope they enjoyed it, I am a bit disappointed I didn't get to go, but since I was burned badly by episode 1 and someone had to stay home with the other minions I volunteered. Waiting for them to get home and to get their impressions now.


Oh in non-this trip news, I checked ticket prices on SouthWest for attriel and my trip to Universal, the airline tickets are horrible for the start of the trip, they haven't been released for our return yet. I need to work on nailing down exactly when we are going soon, but it can probably wait until after we get home.

 

[NJlauren]

Love the shirts! Let us know how the major FP+ booking for everyone goes today!

 

[tabrizia]

Love the shirts! Let us know how the major FP+ booking for everyone goes today!

First day booking went well, we got the same time for everyone, not ever overlapping, they all got the same time spots as us. Doing day 2 at midnight, it might be a bit tougher since it is for HS, and it is likely to be at least a semi-busy day.