Last min Jan '17 Mom/Dtr Trip! COMPLETE 1/10/17

[iheartbelle87]

Welcome to my second official PTR!

I've been MIA for awhile (since late August...) after having to cancel a week long trip I had planned for Sept '16 for DH and I. If you want to read a Disney fanatics worst nightmare, I'll post a link in the chapters for you to read!

If you are like me and want to black out that dark time in my life, you can just skip that chapter

Either way I'm glad to be back here and so happy to catch up on everyones trips and plans!

I hope you enjoy this last minute PTR! ​

 

[iheartbelle87]

Chapters​

Introductions!

Who, What, When, Where & Why

Pre Travel Day Plans

Day 1: Part 1 Travel Day!

Day 1: Part 2 Animal Kingdom/Dinner plans reveal

Day 2: DHS... and we need your dining recs!

Day 3: Epcot + Art Festival

Day 4: Magic Kingdom...with a side of BOG x 2!

Last minute Day 2 update

MOM IS SICK BUT WE'RE STILL GOING AKA LAST POST/URL]http://www.disboards.com/threads/la...p-updated-1-7-17.3566652/page-2#post-56953854http://www.disboards.com/threads/la...p-updated-1-7-17.3566652/page-2#post-56953854

 

[Mollydolly334]

YAY!!!! You're back!!! And you get to go with your mom this time Mother-daughter trips are the best! I'm so happy that you have a trip on the horizon, I felt so bad when you had to cancel your last trip. Can't wait to read all about this new trip!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Introductions
(I'm totally stealing @Mollydolly334 's intros templates- the girl is just so talented!)

Me!
Name: Ashlee
Age: 28 (altho my bday is 12/28, so I'll be 29 at the time of the trip)
Favorite Disney Park: Epcot
Favorite Disney Resort: Beach Club
Favorite Disney Movies: Aristocats, Beauty & The Beast
Favorite Disney Character: Marie
Favorite Disney Song: A Whole New World
Favorite Ride in Magic Kingdom: BTMRR
Favorite Ride in Epcot: Soarin’
Favorite Ride in Hollywood Studios: Voyage of the Little Mermaid (technically an attraction, but still)
Favorite Ride in Animal Kingdom: Kali River Rapids
Favorite Disney Restaurant: Boma

Name: Mom (duh)
Favorite Disney Park: Epcot
Favorite Disney Resort: hm... I'm going to guess Beach Club as well
Favorite Disney Movies: also, Beauty & The Beast
Favorite Disney Character: Piglet
Favorite Ride in Magic Kingdom: Haunted Mansion
Favorite Ride in Epcot: Soarin’
Favorite Ride in Hollywood Studios: She used to like the Drew Carey 'sounds dangerous'....
Favorite Ride in Animal Kingdom: Kilamanjaro Safari
Favorite Disney Restaurant: Biergarten
​

 

[iheartbelle87]

YAY!!!! You're back!!! And you get to go with your mom this time Mother-daughter trips are the best! I'm so happy that you have a trip on the horizon, I felt so bad when you had to cancel your last trip. Can't wait to read all about this new trip!

YAY! So glad you are reading along!! I'm making my way through your TR right now! Just started reading- LOVE that Epcot was your first park!!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Who, What, When, Where, Why

Now that we're all officially introduced, let's get to the details of the trip! Since we booked this trip 26 days out, we had to HUSTLE to get all of our plans in place!

WHO: Well, we kind of already went over that... a mother/daughter trip! My mom started this tradition by taking me on annual trips from age 12. We went every year (sometimes twice a year) until I was about 24. We took a few years 'off' from Disney to visit some other destinations, but our hearts are always in Disney!

WHAT: A Disney World Trip! Of course!

WHEN: January 11th-15th, 2017

WHERE: Coronado Springs Resort! We <3 this resort and is was the least expensive of all the moderates, so win win!

WHY: Well, for starters I am SO overdue for a vacation -it's been since May 2016! I need a minimum of two vacations a year! Plus, as some of you know, my last trip got axed. Sad face.

Ok, now that we got the logistics down, let's get onto the fun part! ​

 

[iheartbelle87]

Pre Travel Day Plans

Thanks for sticking around! I'd love to get to know some of you, so if you are tagging along, feel free to introduce yourself! I promise I'll get better at inserting photos and resizing them!

OFF TOPIC RAMBLINGS It's so close to the holidays, what are everyone plans? DH and I are headed to northern New Hampshire tomorrow (Christmas Eve) to enjoy the evening with his side of the family and then drive 30 miles even MORE north to see my mom and dad before heading back towards Boston. Then... we're heading BACK to the north country of NH for NYE because my middle brother is getting married! It's such a cute venue, I can't wait to share the pics with everyone!

Ok, now back our regularly scheduled program....PRE TRAVEL DAY PLANS!

January 10th is our pre travel day! Although I guess it's technically a travel day for Mom. Since mom lives tttttthhhhiiiisss close to Canada (ok, fine, it's NH), in order to catch our early morning flight from Boston on the 11th she needs to make the pilgrimage to Boston on the 10th. and I, unforgettably, will be working.
Mom does not enjoy driving from her house to mine. In fact, she refuses. Luckily, there is a bus that will take her to South Station in Boston. So, she will boarding said bus early Tuesday morning and getting to South Station around 12:30.

I, on the other hand, will be working (so over rated, BTW). And, because my work schedule is changing the first of the year I'll be working four 10 hour days- meaning I'm working until 5:45 that evening! So what is Mom going to do in the meantime, you ask? Don't worry... I won't leave the woman on the streets of Boston for 6 hours! She can't go to my house because I live on the north shore, 16 miles north of Boston, and taking a cab/uber will be SUPER expensive

So...I've arranged for us to spend the night at the sheraton in Back Bay. This way, Mom can take a cab there and chill in hotel room while I'm slaying away saving lives (#nurseproblems). This is a great hotel btw- it's connected to the prudential building which has fun shops so I'm hoping mom will keep herself entertained while she's waiting for me to arrive. Plus the hotel has a Logan Express stop nearby which is $7 pp to the airport... and I snagged the hotel for $94 so you really can't go wrong! Plus... it's always a fun way to stay in a hotel the night before vaca, yes?

So I plan to make my way into the city after working all day and should be there by 6:30/7. We're already planning on dinner at Luca's, a great little Italian place walking distance from the Sheraton. Then it'll likely be bed time by 9pm for us old ladies!

Here are some photos of mom and I... one in Charleston during our girls trip there (Oct 2014) and one from our Halloween celebrations in Salem, MA

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[iheartbelle87]

Day 1 Part 1: Travel Day/First Disney Day! ​

Merry Christmas Eve for those of you who celebrate! It's only 8:20am here, but I've already worked out for an hour and am about to grab my second cup of coffee! I need to pick up a package from the UPS store, wrap a few more gifts, bake and decorate some gingerbread cookies and then I think I'l be ready for tonight's festivities! I also need to load up our car with the gifts we're bring to NH and separate them by which gifts are going to which houses. DH is heading into work this morning (can you tell he's a work-a-holic?!) so it's just the dog and I keeping busy before we head 'up north'!

Ok I digress... ​

January 11, 2017

The day we leave for Disney! I booked us JetBlue's first flight out of Boston to MCO! Our flight leaves at 6:10am! My only grumbling is that TSA tells you to be there 2-3 hours before your flight, BUT I know that security doesn't open until around 4:30/5. How do I know this? Well DH and I had a 5:45am flight to Jamaica a few years ago and we were there at 3am ... and stood in line for over an hour until security showed up!!

BUT....I also know mom and I are 'rule followers' and will likely still be at the airport by 4am because NOTHING will stop me from going to Disney this time! The hotel we are staying at the night before has an airport shuttle so we were planning on using this, but... the first trip the airport starts at 6am. How Rude! So... I might end up driving mom and I there and parking at Logan. I need to see how expensive this will be...

Mom and I will need to be awake by 3am and we'll plan to leave the hotel by 4am for the airport. Actually... mom will probably wake up at 2:30 because... well IDK why, but she needs a lot of time in the morning. I'm happy to roll out of bed and can be out the door in 30 min.

We'll likely grab some Starbucks for a quick breakfast and then its time to nap on the plane! Our flight lands at 9:35am, while most of the world is probably still sleeping! We hired a car service to take us to the resort so once we get our bags we'll be on our way... yippee!! ​

Up next: Day 1, Part 2: Animal Kingdom​

 

[ariane37]

Hi Ashlee! Just found your report Hope you had a great Christmas, my SIL is in NH and while she didn't come down for Christmas she's on her way down tomorrow and will stay for New Years Eve/Day.
Obviously I don't know why you had to cancel your last Disney trip but I can only imagine how much it sucked I came somewhat close to cancelling our Thanksgiving trip last month and that got me sick to my stomach. So I'm glad you get to go again! Even though it may be stressful I think planning a last minute trip (except maybe during a busy time) would be fun! And we also like CSR.
Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Day 1: Part 2

We'll be arriving at CSR between 10:30/11am. I'm hoping our room will be ready as I indicated on my room request that we would prefer our room be ready sooner more than anything. We booked a standard room and when I spoke to a cast member last week I asked that we get put in Casitas 4 or 5 but honestly we aren't too picky!

IF our room is ready when we arrive, we'll drop off our stuff and get changed before heading out to AK. We'll likely both be quite hangry, so we'll probably end up eating at the Pepper Market for lunch. I know PM gets a bad rep sometimes, but I still like it. I definitely noticed a decline when DH and I were there in 2014, but it wasn't a huge deal! As long as I'm not cooking or responsible for dishes, I'm a happy camper! haha!

Our FP+ selections for the 11th are:

It's Tough to be a Bug 12:50pm-1:50pm
FOTLK 3:30pm-3:45pm (4pm show)
Kilimanjaro Safaris 5pm-6pm

I'm sad that Kali River Rapids is down for refurb, I LOVE that ride! Ok, I mostly just like the drop. The rest is kinda... odd. Mom HATES this ride as she HATES getting wet. But, she tolerates it for me. I bet she's secretly doing a happy dance that it's closed!

Besides our FP selections we will definitely do the exploration trails, Flights of Wonder show, and MAYBE Finding Nemo: The Musical if we have time.

and we have dinner plans... for the first time ever... at Sanaa for 6:50pm! Mom and I are both very adventurous eaters, which is nice because both DH and Dad are NOT. So, whenever we go on vacation with them we end up eating at a lot of "meat and potato" type places. Don't get me wrong- I love a good steak. But I also love trying new foods and drinks, so Sanaa sounds great! Plus, Mom has a dairy allergy and they have quite a bit on their menu that she can have. I'm guessing we'll need to leave the park by 5:50 to get to our destination.

Up next... Day 2: To Epcot or Not To Epcot?

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[rmw1313]

Hi there! Following along..we'll be there some of the same days as you. It's getting so close now!!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Hi Ashlee! Just found your report Hope you had a great Christmas, my SIL is in NH and while she didn't come down for Christmas she's on her way down tomorrow and will stay for New Years Eve/Day.
Obviously I don't know why you had to cancel your last Disney trip but I can only imagine how much it sucked I came somewhat close to cancelling our Thanksgiving trip last month and that got me sick to my stomach. So I'm glad you get to go again! Even though it may be stressful I think planning a last minute trip (except maybe during a busy time) would be fun! And we also like CSR.
Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

Yay so glad you are reading along! What a coincidence about your SIL being in NH! The venue where my brother is getting married on the 31st is expected to get 15 inches of snow tomorrow... and they are getting married OUTSIDE!

Unfortunately DH and I had to cancel our Sept '16 trip 32 days out because his work assigned him a "company talk" during his vacation, and promised him that if he did well, he could get a promotion and a significant salary increase. Luckily, this happened! BUT we are both in grad school and work full time (I'm a nurse, he's a scientist) and aren't able to squeeze in another trip until this summer. We are graduating in May, so I'm hoping once this happens we can re-plan our trip! I actually priced a one week stay (the week after our graduation) at the GF with DxDP and it was $6k BUT I feel like since I had to cancel my last trip, we could potentially be celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary which is 6/11 and celebrate getting our Master degrees, AND this will be our last trip without kids, it sounds like quite a bargain, right? haha!!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Hi there! Following along..we'll be there some of the same days as you. It's getting so close now!!

Welcome! We are SO close now! And according to my weather app, the weather will be decent! Yay! Can't wait to read your PTR !

 

[iheartbelle87]

Day 2 - Updated 1/2/17

Howdy!

It's so nice to meet those of you that are reading along! Last post we left off with our dinner plans for Sanaa our first night and then heading back to CSR for bed time.

I think we've come up with a plan for this morning, so an update is clearly needed!

Right now our plan is to go to Disney Springs for 10am as neither Mom or I have been here since it was re done. Basin and Disney's Days of Christmas our must dos! I also want to hit up the Coca-Cola store and get a souvenir for my FIL since he works for Coca-Cola! D-Living and the Candy Cauldron are also high on our list! Obviously 'Happy Hound' will need to be visited as DH and I are obsessed with our dog and he will also need a souvenir! Ok I keep looking at the list of new stores and I want to go to all of them....

Which will be good because we'll build up an appetite! If we're starving we may try a walk up at Wolfgang Puck Cafe for a TS, or I've really been wanting to try Earl of Sandwich. I'm just not sure how much Earl of Sandwich would have for dairy free items for Mom. After lunch we are DEF visiting Erin Mckenna's bakery!

Now that I've planned for us to eat and shop our tails off I'm SURE we'll need a rest before heading to DHS for the evening.


Our FP+ selections are as follows:

Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
4:50 PM - 5:50 PM

Voyage of The Little Mermaid
5:50 PM - 6:05 PM

Toy Story Mania!
6:45 PM - 7:45 PM


Fantasmic is at 7pm, but based on our FP+ time for Toy Story mania we'll likely miss this. Planning fail.

BUT Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular is at 7:45pm so we can catch this show for the first time! Neither Mom or I know a lot about Star Wars but we always loved the old Star Tours, plus fireworks in Disney? Yes, please!

And..if we are REALLY motivated we can possibly sprint over to Epcot, grab a grey goose slush, and catch Illuminations!

ADVICE NEEDED!
We need a TS recommendation for this day and any recommendations are welcome! Prefer no character meals. Mom has a dairy allergy (as in.. she carries epi pens. so its kinda a big deal, lol). That's it- we like all kinds of foods! ​

 

[rmw1313]

Welcome! We are SO close now! And according to my weather app, the weather will be decent! Yay! Can't wait to read your PTR !

I'm obsessing over the weather forecast, too! I've checked like twice a day every day..hoping it's right because the weather looks perfect!!

BUT Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular is at 7:45pm so we can catch this show for the first time! Neither Mom or I know a lot about Star Wars but we always loved the old Star Tours, plus fireworks in Disney? Yes, please!

We are seeing Star Wars on the 12th too!! DH and my BIL are diehard fans, I'm just starting to get in to it so we are super excited to see it. But, I'm also bummed because it means I'll miss Fantasmic! :-(

 

[iheartbelle87]

Day 3: Epcot Plans!

I can't believe we leave in 9 days! Between Christmas, my 29th birthday and traveling NYE for my brother's wedding I feel like I haven't had much time to obsess over my Disney plans.

In hindsight, this may be a good thing!

I think I'm most excited for Friday the 13th. While I AM superstitious, I'm not going to let this damper our day!

When mom and I booked our trip we had no idea about the new art festival at Epcot (sorry I'm too lazy too look up the real, official name right now ).
We are really excited to watch some broadway performers and snack around the world- I hope we can use snack credits for some of these treats!

Our plan for the 13th is to wake up early and make it to Epcot for rope drop. I hope we are awake by 7am. Breakfast will probably be a snack credit from the Pepper Market or a kind bar/Lara bar that I'm packing for us. Mom likes to say that I like a big breakfast, but really as long as I have coffee I'm good to go! Out of the two of us, she tends to get hangry whereas I'm ok skipping meals.

We are planning to leave CSR by 8:20 at the latest. I want to enter through IG, so if the DHS bus arrives first we'll hop on that and walk over to Epcot. Then we are going to make a run for "Frozen Ever After" ... just like the rest of the world! Hah! Because we booked our trip so late, all of the FP+ for this ride were not available.

Mom and I really loved Maelstrom, and are kinda sad it's gone. One time we even sat and watched movie they showed at the end of attraction. We could not stop laughing- like tears in our eyes, making weird goose noises, laughter. Nope, it wasn't even a funny movie. In fact (correct me if I'm wrong) it was a film meant to promote tourism in Norway, but it was scary! I vaguely remember there being a little boy running away from a man who was stomping his feet? It was hilarious to us! As a side note, Mom and I made two trips to the US Virgin Islands in 2016 and met many wonderful Norwegians, who did a much better job at promoting tourism without even trying!

Anyway... Mom loves the sweaters and perfumes in this drop shop, I wonder if it's still there? Someday when I'm rich (hey, I'll be done grad school in April, so maybe someday!) I'll buy her one!

After FEA we are going to make our way over towards Soarin, as we have a FP+ 9:40am-10:40am! This is one of our favorite attractions, although neither of us have experienced the new version! Mom is scared of heights and always make me ride in the 3rd row! I've been reading thst seats right in the middle are the best to avoid an distortion, so fingers crossed we'll get a 3rd row middle seat!

After this I'm sure our mini breakfasts will be LONG gone, so a stop at Sunshine Seasons will likely be necessary! But, we can't fill up too much because we have an ADR at noon.

Next up we'll likely ride "Living With The Land" (again, such a classic ride with usually minimal waits!) before heading over towards Nemo and Friends, our second FP+ of the day from 11:05am-12:05am.

After this, it'll be time to heads towards Mexico for our ADR at San Angel Inn. I' super excited about this and hope we get a seat near the "river". I've been eyeing the "Puntas Montulenas" on the menu for my entree as well as an Avocado Margarita! Dessert will likely be the DF sorbet. "Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Cabelleros" is an attraction I could ride five times in a row, so maybe we can do this before AND after lunch?!

Now we'll be onto making our way through World Showcase and discovering the art festival or if we are tired we might head back to the room after lunch for a little nap and then head back to Epcot for the 5:30pm Ashley Brown and Josh Strickland performance and to continue making our way through World Showcase. Plus, Epcot has so many great QS options for dinner! After Illuminations, we'll likely head back to CSR and get some zzzz's.

Up Next.... Day 4!
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[ariane37]

You have so many good eating/drinking plans! Sanaa is one of our faves so I hope you both enjoy it I also hope you can eat at EoS, because their sandwiches are delicious!!! Plus you mentioned 2 of my favorite Epcot drinks, the grey goose slush and the avocado margarita. I need to start making plans for our May trip!!
New Soarin' is so incredibly beautiful and FEA is...... I'm not a big Frozen fan at all but rode FEA last Aug. to check it out, and I expected more. Plenty of fans love it though, and I feel every new attraction is worth doing once rather than taking everybody's else's opinion

 

[JAMIESMITH]

ADVICE NEEDED!
We need a TS recommendation for this day and any recommendations are welcome! Prefer no character meals. Mom has a dairy allergy (as in.. she carries epic pens. so its kinda a big deal, lol). That's it- we like all kinds of foods! ​

We love Mama Melrose.

 

[Mollydolly334]

Your plans look great so far! Love all the park-hopping. With a 4-day trip, it's a must to make sure you see everything you can.


Never stayed at CSR before but I've heard great things! It's a bit larger than I'm used to, but the theming is gor-geousssss! On our first mother-daughter trip, Mom and I were between CBR and CSR for our resort. I was rooting for CSR but Mom was pulling for CBR, and since she was paying, I let her choose I still wish we would have gone with CSR though, haha!


Mom and I LOVE Sanaa!!! The Indian Bread Service is a must! I also loved my Blackberry Ginger Mojito. The view with the animals outside is stunning, and you really get a lot of bang for your buck there.


Oh and thanks for the shoutout girl So sad that our trips didn't overlap last time, I would have loved to meet you! Maybe someday...

 

[iheartbelle87]

Day 4: Magic Kingdom

*One week from TODAY I'll be waking up in Disney!*

I'm typically more a 'Magic Kingdom is the first park' kind of person but our plans just didn't pan out that way this year. BUT I'm looking forward to switching things up!

I've been dying to try BOG, but I wasn't sure how Mom would feel about their menu given her dairy allergy. When we first booked our trip we immediately started discussing TS options and she is the one that mentioned 'eating at the castle'. And no, she didn't mean Cinderella's castle! I was able to gobble up a lunch ADR for 1:20pm on the 14th- so it was decided: MK would be our last day park!

Since there is a new welcome show at the castle, we clearly need to rope drop this day! Our goal is to be at MK for 8:30, so we will need to be awake by 7 and out the door once we're all ready. I'm hoping we can eat light a breakfast from Starbucks on Main Street... ahh, I can see it now: sipping a skinny vanilla latte, watching the new welcome show in front of the castle...

I went ahead and made the following FP+ selections:

BTMRR 11:50-12:50pm
Haunted Mansion 4:10pm-5:10pm
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 9:20pm-10:20pm

I'm surprised I was even able to GET a FP+ to SDMT! Usually We like to take a mid day rest, so maybe we can try to arrive to BOG a few min early and head back to the hotel aruond 2 for a rest, and then get back for our FP+ for HM by 5! Plus, that way we might be energized enough to stay for Wishes too!



DINING: Even though I should have been satisfied with getting a lunch ADR for BOG so close to our trip, I of course signed up for the touring plans reservation finder for dinner. And guess what?! I was able to get us a dinner resssie on 1/14 for 6:20pm! I asked mom if she had a preference for lunch or dinner... she said... BOTH! So, we're doing BOG two days in the same day. This will be both of our first times eating here.

Next up... departure day.
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