Mommy & Me - A Girl's Only Trip - October 2016

[Eoywin]

That's great news! I'm going around the same time on a Mother/Son trip. Tomorrow I can start looking at flights on Southwest! I see from the original post you're driving so good luck to you!

We are only 10 hours away from Disney so it's well within easily driving. I'm hoping that gas prices will stay low which will help too!

 

[Eoywin]

We are starting to come up with a plan! Still can't do a lot until the park hours come out in March.

But DD really wants to ride the monorail, so on our arrival day we are going to go to MK. I'm hoping to be able to get 3 or 4 o'clock ADR to Ohana. That way we can ride the monorail to the Poly and then back to MK after supper!

 

[Eoywin]

We are driving down and since it's 10 hours from where we live in NC, we are breaking the drive into two days. I made the reservation for the hotel we are staying at the night before we arrive!!

Only a month until ADR time It's getting closer!

 

[Eoywin]

Finally there is an idea of when the MNSSHP dates are going to be in October! So finally I was able to start planning! As I was planning out the days, I realized that I needed an extra day. So our dates now are October 1st through the 8th.

Sadly this means I have to completely redo my countdown on my calendar in my office.

ADR day is now April 4th. I've emailed my TA the list of ADR's I want to get. Fingers crossed especially for the Ohana ones!

 

[Eoywin]

Today is ADR day! The majority of the reason why I use a TA is because I don't want to get up at the crack o' dawn to make reservations. Today is my day off and I stayed up waaaay too late last night watching WrestleMania so I didn't get up until about 9 am.

First thing I did was check my email and my TA had gotten us everything we wanted!!!

Saturday - October 1 - Ohana at 4:20 pm

Sunday - October 2 - The Nine Dragons at 4:45 pm

Monday - October 3 - Hollywood & Vine at 11 am

Tuesday - October 4 - Ohana at 9:20 am

Wednesday - October 5 - Whispering Canyon Cafe at 5:10

Thursday - October 6 - Yak and Yeti at 4 pm

Friday - October 7 - Crystal Palace at 8:05 am
Be Our Guest at noon

3 character meals which is actually less than I thought we were going to have when I started planning this trip last year. BoG is for CS because DD wanted to eat there again but I didn't want to do TS again.

Ohana is my favorite so I really wanted to do dinner there. Plus we had to do breakfast so my DD could meet Lilo and Stitch. My TA told me that she might not be able to get that Ohana ADR for our first night but she did great and the time is great too!

New places we are trying this year are The Nine Dragons (yes, I know it doesn't have great reviews but I wanted to try it and my DD likes chinese food), Whispering Canyon Cafe and Yak & Yeti!

 

[Eoywin]

This past Thursday was 128 days before our trip. Not a super special day but it was the start of our countdown chain!

I got the pdf of the countdown chain here on the disboards back in 2013 for my daughter's first trip. I found as we used it that there were some older characters that she didn't know.

I edited the pdf to add in newer characters from Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, Big Hero 6 and Star Wars. It took me a good couple of hours to cut the thing out and put it together. But my DD was very happy to have it put up in her room.

Our trip is inching closer!

 

[Eoywin]

Over the last few weeks, I've been working on my daughter's MNSSHP costume. We went to a local convention this weekend where she debuted the costume. She is Kairi from the Kingdom Hearts!

I also wore my Tightrope Girl costume for part of the day. They had some kids activities and one was a live action game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos. The parents would wheelbarrow their kids to the center to collect as many balls as possible in 5 seconds. It was hard, for me!

 

[Eoywin]

Today is DD's last day of school! And it's Friday so it's also Movie Night in our house. This week's Disney feature is Big Hero 6!

 

[Eoywin]

This summer has seemed to fly by. We haven't done too much because our vacation is Disney World. We are 71 days away!

I'm starting to get into Disney mode - I make our fastpass + selections on August 1st. The only one I really care about it the Frozen ride in Epcot - I really don't want to have to run to World Showcase at rope drop.

Over Labor Day weekend, we will be heading to Atlanta for our yearly visit to Dragon Con, which is a huge geeky convention. Like Comic Con but a tiny bit smaller. We stay with local relatives who watch my DD (who at almost age 8 is still a bit too little for the massiveness of Dragon Con). It's a lot of fun and this will be my 9th year in a row attending.

I'll be marching in their parade on Saturday in the Disney group in my Tightrope Girl costume. And maybe going to a Disney photo shoot as well!

Once Dragon Con is over, we'll have less than a month to go before Disney. Then I'll be kicking planning mode into high gear!

 

[Eoywin]

Fall is almost here! We are only 44 days from Disney, but there are other things coming up first.

My daughter starts the 2nd grade on the 29th (which is super late this year) and then we got to Atlanta over Labor Day weekend for Dragon Con. Once we get home from that, I'll be decorating my house for Halloween (it's my favorite holiday and I want my stuff up long enough to enjoy). And then the final countdown to Disney will begin!

For some reason, it doesn't seem quite real yet. I don't think it will until I drive past the sign that says I'm on Disney property.

I did get all the FP+'s I wanted, including the ever popular Frozen ride in Epcot! Now it's just time to wait. Wait for Magic Bands and travel documents, and then wait for September 30th to come to get on the road!

 

[Eoywin]

Yesterday I paid off our trip!

It still doesn't seem quite real but we are getting down to it! Next weekend, we head down to Atlanta for Dragon Con. Once we get home from that, things will be in high gear for Disney!

 

[Eoywin]

Tomorrow is Dragon Con - which is our mini vacation before our actual vacation. I'll be carrying the spirit of Disney with me since I'll be cosplaying as Snow White on Friday and then wearing my Tightrope Girl costume for the parade on Saturday.

 

[Eoywin]

Dragon Con was great! My favorite costume to wear was my Snow White. I wore the Tightrope Girl costume for the parade but I forgot my parasol at home. I also had some issues with the ribbons on one of my legs. I really need to make sure that I double side tape it up good for MNSSHP.

We are 18 days until we are at Disney World! 17 days until we leave home. We got our Magic Bands on Saturday and the Magic Band decals I ordered came yesterday! I'm hoping to start packing soon, though we are super busy pretty much until the week we leave.

 

[Eoywin]

One week from today we will be making our way to Disney World! We are taking two days to make the trip because this is my first time driving, since my husband isn't coming with us.

We are going to stop for the night in GA, get up bright and early and head to AoA!