Me and The Teenagers: Our First Trip Together

[Tenacious K]

Love reading your plans so far!

 

[kristenrice]

Woo hoo!! We've reached the double-digit mark...time for the dance

I don't have a lot to report...

I upgraded our flight to Orlando to the Comfort Plus seats. Now, we can sit in row 5 on the "Flying Coffin" (aka the CRJ700...the puddle jumper) instead of Row 13, and we've moved up from Row 30 to Row 16 on the leg from DTW to MCO. I am nearly certain that we will not be checking any luggage because I think everything we have should fit into our carry-on bags. The oldest of our rolling bags (which is also the only one that is a "soft-sided" one) is also the biggest. I have delegated that one to Kaedyn since she is the one who wants to bring the most "stuff". She is my "girly girl" and she is a lot more "high-maintenance" than Kami and I. Kaedyn needs a different hair style every day and then she has her "beauty routine"...oh boy! Kami and I do the "sunscreen, toothpaste and pony tail" plan...that's our beauty ritual.

I'm planning on spending some of my extra vacation funds to purchase TSA Pre-check for each of us. Since we are planning to go again next year too, and it's good for 5 years, I figure it's worth it just to save us some headache at Orlando. The Grand Rapids airport is pretty low-key and the regular lines are never that bad...but Orlando?? YUCK!

That's all for now...

 

[kristenrice]

Just 66 more days!

The next hurdle is booking our FastPasses and honestly, I'm not looking forward to it. First of all, I will be at work, so the odds of me actually being able to log on and book anything are pretty slim. Second, we just cannot decide where we want to go each day. We know where we will be eating, but we just can't decide if we want to base our park time in the morning and relax in the evening or sleep in and then hit the parks in the evening. I think the safest thing for me to do at this point is going to be to book afternoon/evening Fastpasses. That way, we can get up early and deal with (hopefully) shorter standby lines if we feel like waking up early. If we choose to sleep in, we can do that and still know that we have some FastPasses and we won't be stuck in super-long lines.

Last week, we went to the TSA Pre-check location and applied for our pre-check. We received our KTN's on Friday which was a lot faster that I ever imagined. I added the numbers to our SWA accounts and they show up so I think I am all set there. I added them to our Delta trip, but when I go back and look, the fields are blank and I have to re-enter everything. It says it is saved, but I think I will call to make sure.

The girls go back to school next week. This summer has flown by! Kaedyn is playing volleyball again this year (7th grader) and the season runs from August to "mid-October". Since we leave on October 19, I am really hoping that our trip does not interfere with her volleyball. It sounds like they may only have 6 or 7 girls that are playing so it could be devastating if they have a tournament game that falls on a day we are gone. I am fairly certain she'll be OK because last year, I went to all of her games (she played on the 7th grade team as a 6th grader) and I went to Florida a week earlier. Kami only does track and that is a spring sport so there is no conflict with the high school sports.

 

[kristenrice]

Just 55 more days

As much as I wanted to keep this as "spontaneous" of a trip as I could, I had to make some plans or we would find ourselves starving, standing in long lines and wandering around, aimlessly trying to decide what to do next. Now that we are within the 60-day window, all of the "planning" has been done and I think I have done as much scheduling as I am willing to do at this point.

So here is my "Pre-Trip Plan"

(I'm going to break them down into individual posts for now and then try to go back and update them after each day of the trip. We'll see if I'm actually able to accomplish that goal)

 

[kristenrice]

Day 1: Friday, October 19

Kami gets out of school at 2:45pm and DH will pick her up, as usual. Kaedy usually takes the bus home, but today, I think DH will pick her up too. Since our flight is scheduled to depart at 5:50pm, I think we will leave for the airport at 4pm. It's about a 15-minute drive, we have no checked bags and we have TSA-precheck so I think we should be at the gate by 4:45pm. Our flight lands in Detroit at 6:50pm and the flight to Orlando departs at 8:15pm so we have a little time to grab a quick bite for dinner. We are flying Delta so I am not worried about lining up 30 minutes before departing like we have to do with SWA.

Our flight arrives in Orlando at 11pm and I plan to get right on DME as soon we can. Our seats on the plane are right across from the restroom so I am going to try and make sure we all use it before we land so that we don't have to make a pit stop in the airport. I am hoping that we have a smooth, fast DME experience because we will be exhausted.

I'm hoping to arrive in our room at OKW by 1am at the latest.

 

[kristenrice]

Day 2: Saturday, October 20

After a long day of school and travel, we plan to sleep in. I will probably wake up around 7-8am without an alarm so I will place an order with Amazon Prime Now for delivery of our groceries. When the girls get up, and after the groceries arrive, we are heading off to Epcot.

Our first thing on the agenda for today is the Parisian Afternoon at 1:30pm at Monsieur Paul's. Kaedy and I did this event in 2016 and we really liked it. I don't think Kami will enjoy it too much because she is such a finicky eater, but she cannot stay behind so she has to come along. We will see what she thinks. After lunch, we are going to bail out of Epcot before the Saturday crowds set in and we are going to head over to the Studios for the evening.

I have FastPasses for Tower of Terror (3:50-4:50), Rock n Roller Coaster (5:00-6:00) and Toy Story Midway Mania (6:45-7:45) and we also want to try and do Star Tours and the Frozen Singalong show as well. We will close out the night with Fantasmic. Somewhere in there, we will need to grab a bite to eat, but it will be quick service or a snack of some sort.

After the Studios, we will head back to the resort and get to bed to prepare for an early start tomorrow.

 

[kristenrice]

Day 3: Sunday, October 21

This should be interesting...I'm hoping to get the girls up early and head back to the Studios for early morning Extra Magic Hours. This will be our opportunity to see Toy Story Land and hopefully ride Slinky Dog Dash without a huge line. Honestly, the only thing we want to accomplish is the Toy Story Land attractions and anything else that they may want to repeat from yesterday. The plan is to hang out at the Studios until about noon and then catch the bus to Kidani Village.

At 1pm, we have a lunch reservation at Sanaa. We *LOVE* this restaurant so we are going to eat lunch here before heading over to AK for the evening. If the girls decide to sleep in and we miss the morning at the Studios, it's not the end of the world.

At AK, we have FastPasses for Flight of Passage (4:05-5:05), Kilimanjaro Safaris (5:25-6:25) and Expedition Everest (6:45-7:45). We have never seen Rivers of Light so we will hopefully get to see that this time. I will leave it up to the girls to decide if it is something they want to do or not.

After the AK, we are going to take the bus to the Contemporary and go up to the TOTWL. We might time it right to see the MK fireworks, which I think will be Happily Ever After, which is also something we have never seen, but I am not too worried about it. Our main reason for going to the lounge is the food! Kami loves the pretzels, Kaedy loves the Mini Monorails and we all love that amazing chocolate cake. When we are done, we will probably Uber/Lyft back to OKW and I will start packing because it is checkout day tomorrow.

 

[kristenrice]

Day 4: Monday, October 22

I'm still working on a logistical plan for the morning. I am thinking about having Uber pick us up around 9:00 to take us and our luggage over to Kidani Village so that we can check in to our new room. Then, we can drop off our luggage and hop the bus to Epcot. I have only 2 FastPasses for us, Test Track (11:05-12:05) and Mission: Space (12:15-1:15) and then I figured we would head over to World Showcase and hit up some of the festival booths for "lunch".

Around 3pm, we will head back to the room and catch a cat nap. I will also order our second set of groceries from Amazon Prime Now so that we have groceries at Kidani too. We have ADR's for the late HDDR at 8:30pm so I'm planning to have Uber pick us up around 7:30 to take us over to Ft Wilderness. I'm hoping that will give us enough time. After dinner, we will either take Uber, a Minnie Van or a bus...I am not sure yet, but we will be heading back to the resort and off to bed.

 

[kristenrice]

Day 5: Tuesday, October 23

After the late night last night, it is a sleep-in day today

The first (and only!) thing on the agenda for today is Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party! Thanks to DVC, we can get in to the MK at 2pm this year with just our party tickets. We will have a little breakfast in the room before we head out to the party, but we have dinner at 4:30 at Be Our Guest so we don't want to fill up too much.

I have two FastPasses booked...Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (2-3pm) and Big Thunder Mountain (3:05-4:05pm) so we will get those out of the way before dinner. After dinner, we will focus on party activities and any of the rides that the girls want to do. I cannot ride Space Mountain, which is one ride that they really want to do. I told them I will simply sit outside on a bench and wait for them and they can ride it themselves. The party night is the only time we are going to be in the MK so I want to make sure that they get to do what they want to do, but they have both admitted that the MK really isn't their favorite park. I think we will be able to do everything that we want to do within the time we have without missing anything. The only thing I have to see is the parade. I *LOVE* the Halloween parade! I can miss the fireworks (we watch them from TOTWL many times) but the parade is a must-do.

After we close out the party, it's off to bed...

 

[kristenrice]

Day 6: Wednesday, October 24

Today is another no-park day...mostly. Since I have an AP, I *really* want the Passholder cutting board that they are offering at Epcot. Unfortunately, you have to ENTER Epcot 4 different days in order to get it. That means that the only way I can get 4 entries is if I can make it in to Epcot today. So, if I wake up early enough (before the girls), I told them that I am going to try and hop over to Epcot and get my pass stamped...that's it. Then I will come right back to the resort. I think I can accomplish that within 2 hours total. We are simply going to be hanging out at the resort today anyways. We may try out something like mini-golf or another non-park activity, but we have no plans for the morning and afternoon.

In the evening, we are going over to Disney Springs and we are going to Splitsville for the DVC Member night. It should be interesting since we have not bowled in years. I can't wait to see how we do...it should be a good time. After dinner, Kaedy has already asked to go to the TOTWL again so that's the plan.

 

[kristenrice]

Day 7: Thursday, October 25

Today was the hardest day to plan. Right now, Epcot is on the agenda. I do not have an ADR planned for today. I was hoping to eat dinner at Jiko on this trip, but I don't want to tie us down to a resort reservation on our last night. So, for now, I am hoping to "wing it". I want to try and get a signature dinner in but I will leave it open to whatever has availability and whatever is convenient to where we happen to be around dinner time. This could be interesting...I have about $200 budgeted right now for our dinner so we should have a lot of options.

We have a "throwaway" FastPass at 9:10 and then Living with the Land (10:40-11:40) and Soarin' (11:50-12:50). Soarin' is the only one I really care about so I am planning to be in the park by 11am. If I wake up before the girls, I will just work on packing so that I don't have to feel rushed in the evening.

We will just go through the day and do whatever we want...It's our last full day so I don't have a real plan. We have to get up fairly early tomorrow and we have a LONG day, but I don't want to hold anything back today.

 

[kristenrice]

Day 8: Friday, October 26

Time to go home

First thing on the agenda....Breakfast at Boma at 9am
We are flying home on Southwest and I am not sure if we are going to check any of our bags or not. It will depend on how much of our groceries we've used up (I am buying a lot of our toiletries) and how much candy we get at the party. More than likely, we will be checking 2 bags so we will drop those off at RAC after breakfast. Then, we are heading out to the AK for the morning.

I was able to snag another Flight of Passage FastPass (12:20-1:20) and I also got one for Kilimanjaro Safaris (1:55-2:55) so we can do those two attractions for sure. Our flight is at 6:40pm so I am planning on a DME pick-up time of about 3:45pm. I am planning on being back at the resort by 3pm so I'm planning to ride Kilimanjaro Safaris right at 1:55 and then head straight for the park exit. I was hoping that there would be a FotLK show that would fall right between the FoP (12:20) and the safari, but that is probably wishful thinking.

Our flight departs MCO at 6:40pm and flies to Chicago where we have a layover of almost an hour and 45 minutes. That will give us time to grab food, but I'm thinking that we should have plenty of time at MCO since we get there so early and we have TSA-pre check. We will probably grab dinner before heading through security. We land home in Grand Rapids at midnight and should be home in bed by 12:30am.

 

[kristenrice]

Whoa! We leave in 28 days!!

NOW, the girls have decided they want to dress up for MNSSHP. They cannot keep it simple...not these girls. Kam has decided to go as her hero...HERCULES! She is so creative and she has concocted an idea for a costume that is multi-functional. She is using a bright blue sweatshirt as a cape so that she can wear it if it gets cool. She bought it at the thrift store for $1. She found a tan tank top and sewed some large buttons on the shoulders and fashioned a way to attach the sweatshirt. She enlisted grandma to make her a skirt and found some fabric that matches the tank top. Then she found a nice, wide belt at the thrift store for $0.25! Finally, we got her some brown gladiator sandals at Payless for $15. It might not be perfect and people might not instantly recognize her as Hercules, but she is pretty proud of her creation.

Kaedyn has been away at "science camp" (they call it Outdoor Education) for school for the past 3 days. She hasn't started on her costume yet, but I know she is going to be a lot more difficult. Kami is very specific with what she wanted...Kaedy says she wants to be a "Greek goddess". I have no idea what that entails....and neither does she. It's hard to know what to shop for when she doesn't even have an idea in mind. We'll start hitting the thrift stores this weekend.

Our DME packet came yesterday and I got an e-mail today saying that our first MagicBand order has shipped. I have SO much stuff on my calendar for the next three weeks. It's so weird that the week we leave is the first week that my calendar is actually clear!

 

[kristenrice]

Holy Cow!! We leave TODAY!

I’m sitting here at the spa, waiting for my pedicure to dry, enjoying the massage chair, and it is finally starting to set in that this trip is no longer hypothetical...it’s real! And it’s TODAY!

I have almost everything packed, but I still have that feeling that I am going to forget aonething. Then, I remember the words of wisdom from DH...”Honey, you’re not leaving civilization. Orlando has a Target.”

The girls were both exhausted this morning when we got them up for school. Kaedyn never eats breakfast but Kam does abs she said she was too nauseous so I know she is anxious about the trip. Hopefully, they will be able to get some rest on the plane. I’m really glad that I did not plan anything for tomorrow morning.

I will try my best to update throughout the trip, but I am not very good at keeping up with trip reports. Hopefully, I can do better.