Magic and Happiness! (Our first trip) - An October 2015 PTR

[DisneyAsh21]

Hi everyone, and welcome! I've been reading trip reports for a couple of years and have decided to make a post here myself, now that I am finally planning a trip! This is mine and my sister's first trip to Disney world and I can't wait to experience some of the Disney magic! We have been long time Disneyland annual passholders, but I am really excited to see the other parks!
Details:
Sometime in September or October, for 8 days. We have to decide which time will be better. We do want to be there for food and wine, though.
Who's going:
Lexi (My sister): My sister, 20, is excited to see WDW. She likes to meet characters with me and loves everything Little Mermaid. Lexi cannot wait to see Eric's castle and to meet Ariel.
My dad: He is excited to visit EPCOT and Hollywood studios the most. Him and my mom haven't been in many years. So much has changed since then, it's kind of like their first time too.
My mom: My mom is excited to see everything. She enjoys relaxing at the parks, just taking everything in and people watching.
Me (Ashley, 23): A photographer, dole-whip, loving gal. I love everything about Disney. I was raised on it and am so excited to experience WDW! I love beauty and the beast and hope to eat at BOG for lunch during our trip! I love the relaxing aspects disney has to offer, but I'm more of a "go go go person" and I want to see as much as I can without burning ourselves out. I'm most excited for EPCOT and HS.
Since this is my first trip to WDW, here's a picture of me admiring one of my favorite things in Disneyland Park - the snow on Main Street with all of the Christmas decorations!
We also all love the holidays in the parks so we are excited to experience Halloween and all of the fall decor in the parks!
We all love the shows, attractions, and dining disney has to offer.
We are looking at POR, Coronado, All Star Movies, or Pop. We will need a wheelchair accessible room on the first floor (or in a building with an elevator).
I have been planning this trip for a couple of years. I have looked at the different resorts, park options, and dining, and am so excited to finally put the plans into action!
I'm new to this so I would love any advice, tips, or must do/sees!
Until next time, have a zip a dee do da day!

 

[DisneyAsh21]

Table of contents​

Rough Itinerary
We Picked a Hotel! (1/30/15)
So much Food, So Little Time
How Our First Trip Came to Be

 

[DisneyAsh21]

There are still at least 240 days until we leave, so I only have a rough iteberary, but will hopefully have more plans in the next couple of weeks to prepare for our 180 ADR mark. This may change depending on EMH and if we decide to go to MNSSHP.

Day 1: Arrive!
We will hopefully arrive in the afternoon and take the magical express to our chosen resort.
Downtown disney, relax around the resort (I have read about movie nights by some of the pools?), or resort hop between the monorail resorts, eat at captain cooks, then sit on the poly beach and watch wishes. Maybe a campfire.

Day 2: EPCOT
Beaches and cream and walk around the boardwalk
Test Track or Illuminations FP
CS in world showcase for dinner, or food from food and wine

Day 3: Magic Kingdom
Possible breakfast at Ohana or 1900 (if we can still make the welcome show)
BOG for lunch
CS for dinner (Caseys Corner?)
FP for mine train
Electrical parade (really excited to see this again! I remember seeing it at DLR and then again at DCA when I was younger)

Day 4: Hollywood Studios
Mama Melroses Fantasmic! dining package
CS Backlot express
TSMM FP

Day 5: Animal Kingdom
CS Flame Tree and/or Pizzafari (both, if it's not too far to get food and meet in the middle)
Hoop-Dee-Doo? Possibly MNSSHP

Day 6: EPCOT
Finish up world showcase
Soarin FP
Captains Grill breakfast?
CS in WS or Electric Umbrella
Possibly head back to the resort

Day 7: HS and MK
CS Pizza planet
CS in MK or monorail resort
Wishes

Day 8: Departure
Possible breakfast at Ohana or 1900 if our flight is late enough (instead of MK day 1)

This is the plan, as of now. we are still deciding on resorts and that will possibly determine what kind of dining plan we get. If we get a quick service dining plan we will probably only pay OOP for one or two table service restaurants and choose to change the others to counter service. We definitely want to do a character meal. My sister and I are thinking Ohana because she loves Lilo and Stitch, but 1900 in the grand is also an option.

 

[DisneyAsh21]

I have a trip update! We have pretty much decided on a hotel!
Drum roll please......

All-Star Movies!!

I'm really excited about our decision! We love movies and are excited for the cute theme! We love all of the details: the film reel railings, the borders in the rooms, the food court - all of it! I read that values make a lot of people feel like they never leave Disney, so we are really excited! My sister and I are also those people that are super excited to take pictures with all of the props and statues around the resort.
One of my favorite characters is Sorcerer Mickey, so being able to have this as our pool makes me happy! (All pictures are from WDWinfo, since I have never visited the resort)

We are also planning on booking a preferred room so we will be closer to everything. I' hoping to be able to stay in one of the Fantasia buildings, preferably the blue building (Not Fantasia 2000, though I would be fine with any of the buildings)!

I have also seen a lot of pictures of windows and we're excited to plan how we want to decorate our window! It's a trip with all of the celebrations so we will see what we decide to do with our hotel window! Will it be fall/halloween themed? A graduation/birthday window? Or maybe something having to do with our first visit? We've seen lots of cute pictures with Mickey Mouse and favorite characters that we have loved too!
Everything is starting to take shape as we get closer to our ADR date! (Still far, but less than 75 days! Woohoo!)

The plans have already changed and will probably change again when I see EMH and if any ADRs are taken when we go to book, if they are available another day. For now we are just looking at all of the food and seeing what interests us the most for this trip. We are also starting to plan more details. I don't want to stick to an exact schedule (although I do love planning!) but I don't want to miss something we might see at the end and be sad we couldn't do, or see a restaurant and wish we had eaten there but didn't make an ADR for.
That's all for now, but I will make a dining update soon!

 

[DisneyAsh21]

I feel like there's just not enough time to try all of the food I want to try! But we will make time to try as much as we can! There's just so much goodness! Plus, there's food & wine (although most of us are most excited about the food!)
Right now we are looking at the dinning plan, hoping they offer it to rooms using the cast discount when we are going! I think we want to get the regular ddp instead of the quick service ddp rather than paying out of pocket for a couple of meals. All of the restaurants look so much fun! We can't decide!
So far we know we want to eat at:
Ohana (breakfast) because we love Lilo and Stitch. I think we want to kick off our first full day in disney with a nice family meal!
Mama Melroses: if we decide to do the ddp we would love to have a meal here so we don't have to use a fp+ on fantasmic! But we also love Italian food!
Be our guest lunch: hopefully we can get a fp for this, but I love beauty and the beast so much and would love to eat in the castle! I may have spent hours looking at pictures of the beautifulness of this place and the delicious looking food!
Beaches & Cream: I don't know how, but this is one of the first restaurants I ever read about in wdw and we all really want to see that area of the resort so we decided it would be a nice walk from EPCOT one evening.
we're looking forward to trying new places that aren't here on the west coast!
We have also recently been looking into cape may breakfast, tusker house breakfast, La hacienda de San angel, garden grill, sci-fi drive in, 50s prime time, and hoop dee do revue. We don't know how many character meals we want to do, but we figured it saves some time on waiting in line to meet characters (although we will do that too!). We want to mix it up and don't want to do character meals with the same characters, so we'll see what we decide!

Food we know we want to try:
Goofys candy company, homemade ice cream sandwiches, Grey stuff cupcake, disney pizza, the Simba lion cub cupcake, Ghirardelli, caseys corner, Cronut, citrus swirl, cinnamon roll, anything having to do with s'mores,, and Mickey waffles because I'm not sure if I've ever had a Mickey waffle. I'm also trying to make my family think it would be a good idea for the 4 of us to attempt to eat the kitchen sink!


I have a question, I'm hoping someone here can answer. I'm a pretty picky eater due to allergies. Would I be able to order a larger portion of something off of the kids menu, or order off of the kids menu, and still use a qs or regular TS credit? If I did, would I be able to get the adult sides and desserts with the meal? Would I be able to request the kids food at the family style restaurants? Thank you in advance!

 

[DisneyAsh21]

I have been planning this trip for a few years now, but it wasn't this exact trip. When we were planning a road trip a few years ago I said we should go to WDW, kind of as a joke but I knew I was serious about it. I looked into it and then each year kept suggesting it and it got more and more serious each year, but it never worked out.
Then in May of 2014 I graduated college and I told my parents all I wanted was to go to WDW. I have been to Disneyland countless times but I have always wanted to go to the other coast. My sister and I were going to go in April for her 21st birthday but it was in the middle of spring break so that was out. I had read so much about Food & Wine Festival so I suggested we go in the fall and I knew we couldn't go without my parents because they really wanted to go to WDW too.
After a couple of months of talking to everyone, it was decided that we would go to Florida in 2015! After showing them lots of amazing food pictures and all of the pretty hotels, they were just as excited.

This is a celebration trip! Any trip to the World is a celebration, but we are celebrating a college graduation, a 21st birthday, and our 1st visit!
Now on how the title came to be. We are going to experience so much magic and so much happiness on this trip! From riding the Magical Express for the first time and seeing that beautiful entrance arch for the first time, to simply walking down Main Street and seeing the castle. (I have tears just thinking about it!) I love all of the magic of Disneyland and am beyond excited to experience it in 4 other parks!
This is going to be 8 days of fun and I can't wait to finish planning for the greatest vacation!
There's one other thing I forgot to mention. This is not only our first trip to Florida, but it is my sister and I's first time on an airplane. EVER! My family has always taken road trips everywhere we went. We actually even mapped out a roadtrip to WDW, but quickly ruled that one out. We both go from nervous to excited every few days, but we know at the end of the flight we will be able to see so many amazing things!
We used to watch the WDW Beach Sing-a-long VHS over and over, and now we will be able to see those places with our own eyes!

 

[rosedolph]

Hey Ashley! I'm Melissa and I'm following because we are going to Disney in lat Sept/ early Oct too!

 

[DisneyAsh21]

Hey Ashley! I'm Melissa and I'm following because we are going to Disney in lat Sept/ early Oct too!

Hi, Melissa! Welcome! I'm glad to have you following along!
Sept/October sounds like a great time to go, and I can't wait!

 

[DisneyAsh21]

Chapter 5: Update!​

So I haven't updated my plans on here in several months. I'm going to give this another try and hopefully create a trip report shortly after I return!
Anyways...
A lot has happened with the trip since I last updated. The dates ended up changing and now we are able to start our first trip off in Magic Kingdom! Because dates changed, some of our itinerary changed. Luckily I somehow mixed up dates of some of our ADRs so it worked out perfectly. I also tried to get some ADRs on our original ADR date but they were full (at 6:30am EST) so I had to settle for another day. Long story short, everything is coming together now!!
I have made my ADRs and am getting ready to make FP+ reservations in a few days!

We are currently going between the QS Dining Plan and the Dining Plan. We know that the restaurants and food are all part of the experience, but we are still deciding if we want to take the time to eat at restaurants once a day, sometimes more with how we have it planned. We also want to experience food and wine festival, so we don't know how many food booths we will want to eat at. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

I have two plans now and am hopefully going to choose one before our FP+ date so we don't have to go from one end of a park to another multiple times a day.

 

[DisneyAsh21]

Day 1: Arrival
We are hopefully going to get there on time to head over to the monorail resorts to watch fireworks and eat a counter service meal.

Day 2: Magic Kingdom
We're most excited about watching the electrical parade since we used to watch it when it was at DL/DCA. We also have an ADR for Ohana breakfast this day!

Day 3: EPCOT
We will probably spend most of the morning in future world on the first day. I'm hoping the Chase Lounge will have wristbands for Illuminations. If not, what's your favorite place to view them? We'll probably choose to have lunch in the Mexico Pavilion and we have an ADR at Beaches and Cream for dinner. I'm hoping to make a passport for us so we can go around and collect stamps. I am also excited to meet all of the characters in their respective countries and to see Duffy again!

Day 4: AK and Boardwalk
We're still deciding on a CS lunch in Animal Kingdom. Since the park closes at 6pm we're going to go to the Boardwalk after and get pizza from the pizza window.

Day 5: HS
Our first day at HS. We have an ADR for the Fantasmic! Dining Package for dinner. I'm excited to see Fantasmic! because I love the show they have at Disneyland!

Day 6: HS and DTD
I might choose to go to a waterpark for part of the day if I feel I have the time, but I don't want to buy the tickets just yet in case of bad weather. As of now, we're finishing up HS and then going to DTD in the evening. My sister and I definitely want to try Pizza Planet because we love Toy Story. We might get dinner at a resort before going to DTD or we might eat in DTD, but Goofys Candy Co. is a MUST!!

Day 7: EPCOT
We have an ADR for Biergarten and we'll probably eat at the food and wine festival booths for dinner or find something in the world showcase.

Day 8: Departure
I think we're going to go to Art of Animation since we're leaving later in the day.



Now we just have to finish planning to big details and begin shopping and buying stuff on Etsy for our trip. Are we able to have decals on our magic band? I have found some cute ones but I don't if it messes with the RFID or anything.

I would love any thoughts, seeing as this is my first trip and the first time I have planned a trip this large! I do have more ADRs if we decide to go with the DDP. I have Sci-Fi on Day 6, Les Chefs de France on day 3, and Tusker House on our AK day for breakfast.