Oct 2022 Pre-Trip Report with Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally

[VandVsmama]

I'm officially starting a PTR in preparation for our October 2022 trip with 2 very dear friends, who we will refer to as Uncle Bob and Aunt Sally. Here we go!!!!!

Who's going on the trip?

• Me - Mom, age 49. I love everything Disney and I'm the planner in our group. Favorite rides: Flight of Passage, Rise of the Resistance, Radiator Springs Racers. Yeah, I know that RSR is at Disneyland, but we usually go to DL since it's way closer to us (6 hr drive instead of long cross-country plane ride - we live in AZ).
• DH - will be age 50 at the time of this trip. He endures Disney trips because he loves us. But also because he has major fear of missing out. Favorite rides: Mr Toad's Wild Ride at DL, Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones at DL.
• ODD - age 16 at the time of the trip. Favorite rides: most roller coasters except if they go upside down and no way to any drop elevator rides.
• YDD - age 14 at time of trip. Favorite rides: Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, and BTMRR (aka Fast Choo Choo)
• Uncle Bob - age 51. Is legally blind. Can't see a thing except ONCE in awhile during fireworks when the fireworks are super duper bright, he can see that. Uses a DAS pass when he goes to DL due to very bad ankle injury from a car accident several years ago. Has no problems walking long distances, but standing in line for more than 30 min at a time is pretty much unbearable...hence, the use of DAS. Stairs are also hard for him. Favorite rides: Radiator Springs Racers, Indiana Jones, Guardians of the Galaxy at DL.
• Aunt Sally - age 50 at time of trip. Married to Uncle Bob. We are not actually related to Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally. We are just dear friends with them and they're like family. Favorite rides: pretty much everything except for Guardians of the Galaxy. Aunt Sally also has celiac disease and is allergic to shellfish.

When are we going?
Saturday, October 1 to Saturday, October 8.

This will be Uncle Bob and Aunt Sally's first ever trip to WDW. And it'll also be their first vacation together where it requires airplane travel.

I know what you're thinking...."WHAT?!" Well, they've always just done road trips and local adventures in southern California, AZ, New Mexico, and Las Vegas instead of air travel vacations. More on this later because Aunt Sally has a fair amount of anxiety about the air travel stuff, but she & I have put together a plan for that.

Where are we staying?
At the Art of Animation resort! In a Cars family suite. Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally will have the 'master' bedroom so they get some privacy, while DH and the kids & I sleep in the other part of the Cars suite. Having the 2 separate bathrooms will be great. Uncle Bob is a big Cars fan, is really into NASCAR, and loves Carsland in DL. I told him about the traffic cone lamps and he almost lost his mind over that.

Why we picked AOA over other options:

• separate bedrooms for our family + Uncle Bob/Aunt Sally
• it's in the budget
• Skyliner gondola access to Epcot & HS
• bus service as well to Epcot
• We've stayed twice now at Pop Century & had a good experience there & AOA has a similar 'feel' to Pop from what I can tell.
• Pop felt pretty centrally located to MK, Epcot, & HS from when we stayed there the 2 previous trips.

 

[VandVsmama]

Goals for this trip:

1. Have Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally visit each of the 4 theme parks @ WDW.
2. Take YDD to Typhoon Lagoon
3. Take YDD on a horseback ride at Ft Wilderness
4. Rent a boat for an hour - this is for DH's benefit, but everybody will love it.
5. Eat a meal @ 1 of the TS restaurants in the Italy pavilion at Epcot. This is for Uncle Bob, who is of Italian descent (i.e., grew up with his grandmother at home & she was from Italy and barely spoke English).
6. Get Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally on ROTR.
7. Have a drink at Oga's Cantina in Star Wars-land.
8. Have lunch or dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table in MK - for Aunt Sally since she loved Cinderella as a kid.

Now let's talk food!
TS restaurants that are on the short list are:

• CA Grill or Steakhouse 71
• Hollywood Brown Derby @ HS
• Prime Time Cafe @ HS
• Tutto Italia or Via Napoli @ Epcot - preference for Tutto Italia, though
• Cinderella's Royal Table @ MK
• Whispering Canyon - probably for brunch 1 day
• If Hoop Dee Doo Revue reopens, that will be the #1 priority over all of these!

As you can see, we are mostly avoiding character meals. I looked at the Topolino's menu but nothing on either their breakfast/brunch or dinner menus will appeal to picky YDD. I DO, however, think that we will be eating at least 2 QS meal at Primo Piatto @ the Riviera (since it'll be easy to get to on the Skyliner).

We are also pretty much avoiding restaurants that focus a ton on Asian food because it's not Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally's cup of tea...which is totally fine since there's literally dozens and dozens of restaurants to try instead!

Food Allergies & special dietary needs:
Uncle Bob, Aunt Sally, & DH all eat keto and since Aunt Sally has celiac disease, both she and Uncle Bob eat gluten free. We'll be doing 1 TS meal per day, at lunch time most of the time, I think. So I'll be sure to list the food allergies (gluten, shellfish) when we book the ADRs. For obvious reasons, I think we'll probably avoid restaurants like Flying Fish or the Boathouse.

As it turns out, the AOA family suites have a microwave in them! Great! So I think we'll do an Amazon Fresh order so we can have a few things on hand in the room for snacks & breakfast items. Uncle Bob, Aunt Sally, & DH are not big breakfast people, but my kids definitely need something in their stomachs first thing otherwise they turn into hangry gremlins. I think we'll order stuff like:

• couple of cases of water
• Raisin Bran - for ODD
• half gallon of milk
• some heavy whipping cream - for use in the 3 Mouseketeers' keto coffee in the mornings (i.e., DH, Uncle Bob, Aunt Sally)
• some bananas
• Hershey's chocolate syrup - for YDD to make chocolate milk in the morning
• maybe some of those egg bites/egg cups that you can microwave
• a box of granola bars - for me
• a carton of Stok cold brew unsweetened coffee - DH loves this stuff

We are DEFINITELY going to be getting refillable drink mugs for all of us because of the course of a week, it ends up being a huge cost savings on drinks. Of course, they don't work IN the theme parks, but we can use them at pretty much any resort-based QS location. We've done this on our past 2 trips and it worked out well. I did the math before and it does end up being less expensive this way!

 

[VandVsmama]

Let's talk airplane, airports, and all things air travel for a sec!

As I said earlier, Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally haven't ever gone on a vacation together which required flying anywhere. Aunt Sally hasn't gotten on an airplane since before she met Uncle Bob about 13-14 years ago! Crazy, right? Well, life just sort of got in the way and they both found the concept of air travel to be really stressful since Uncle Bob needs to use a companion bathroom when they're out and about.

We haven't purchased plane tickets yet...that'll happen at the end of this month when Southwest Airlines opens up their schedule through October.

Right now, the general plan is to fly out of our home airport (PHX)...Here's a pic in all of its desert glory. LOL.


I'm hoping to get direct flights from PHX to MCO. Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally asked where can they find the companion bathrooms in both of those airports. I looked that up and here's where they are:

For example, in the Phoenix airport, the companion bathrooms are called "Family Restroom."


At the Orlando airport, the items circled represent where the companion bathrooms are. Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally are relieved that there are options all over the place on Levels 1 and 3.




Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally have decided to drive from their home in southern CA to our house in AZ. Hmm...so why not just fly out of an airport there in the LA area? Because they're a little overwhelmed with the idea of navigating through multiple airports for the first time with nobody to sort of show them the ropes. When one of you can't see AND that same person needs assistance in a companion bathroom, that alone can make things stressful and tricky.

So the day BEFORE we fly out, Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally are driving to our house. It's a 5.5 hour drive on I-10 without stops for gas or bathroom...



They're going to leave their house that Friday morning, will probably get to us about mid-afternoon. The Loop 202 freeway cuts down on a lot of travel time since you can avoid having to drive through downtown Phoenix. It makes the drive about 30 min shorter at certain times of day!

We're going to pay for the Early Bird check in with Southwest Airlines, so we'll all be automatically checked in online 24 hr before departure.

But what about masks & being around all of those people in the airplane?
Well, first off, everybody still has to wear masks indoors at all airports and in all airplanes right now. Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally asked, "What if they relax the rules before the trip?" In that case, nothing's preventing us from wearing masks anyway!

What about when the airline serves drinks & snacks?
You know...since everybody takes their masks off all at once and you breathe in that shared air. Well, you can do what the 4 of us did on our last trip...we waited until almost everybody around us was done snacking & drinking and THEN we ate & drank. It was a pretty simple, but very effective solution and it helped alleviate some of DH's anxiety about the whole thing.

What if somebody refuses to wear a mask?
This was a big concern of Uncle Bob and Aunt Sally's. Told them not to worry...if somebody trying to board the plane refuses to put on a mask, they won't be allowed to board. If you refuse while the plane is in the air, you'll be met by federal law enforcement once the plane lands.

They've been so out of the loop in the last several years in terms of air travel that they both went "Oh yeah...that's right!" to common rules of thumb which the rest of us take for granted, like:

• don't pack your prescription medications in your checked luggage
• only liquids up to 3 oz which all fit into 1 quart-sized ziplock bag in your carry on bags
• bring an extra battery & cord to charge your phone on the flight
• the fact that Internet is available on flights now...often for a price, of course.
• the idea of packing a couple of essential items in your carry on bag (like an extra pair of undies or something in case your luggage gets lost)

 

[VandVsmama]

Another question from Bob & Sally - How will we get to the airport when we fly out?

I looked into a couple of options....

Option #1: Uber or Lyft
Problem with this is no Uber or Lyft is big enough to fit all 6 of us and luggage for a week's vacation. We'd need 2 cars. Then multiply that cost x 2 (once for getting TO the airport, once for getting home FROM the airport at the end of the trip). Meh.

Option #2: Hire a limo or town car service
About the same cost as option #1.

Option #3: We both drive to the long term parking lot at PHX.
This is what we're going with. Aunt Sally will drive her car, we'll drive our car (none of us have a vehicle that fits 6). And we'll park right next to each other in the long term parking lot. I learned just last week that you can reserve long term parking at PHX ahead of time and pay a little less money! The plus side of this is we won't have to wait for an Uber or Lyft late at night when we arrive back home. We can go straight to our cars and drive ~ 30 min back to our house. Easy peasy. And it's the cheapest option.

"But hey...How do we know how early to get to the airport before the flight? At LAX in the past, sometimes you have to get there 3 hours beforehand!"
Not to worry, Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally. We've done this a couple of times now with the 4 of us. I told them that this is how I figure that out:

• Let's say the flight departs at 9:00 am.
• The Phoenix Airport website recommends to allow for 2 hours for check in, getting through security and all that. So working backwards, that means we'd need to arrive at the terminal at 7:00 am.
• Factor in 10-15 min of messing around with bags and such at the parking lot, so now you're at 6:45 am.
• At that early time of day, it'd probably take 30 min to get from our house to the airport parking lot...which would have us leave no later than 6:15 am.
• But I want to factor in some wiggle room in case there's a traffic jam, so we'll allow for 15 extra minutes, which has Go Time being 6:00 am departing from our casa.
• ...and since my DH moves slowly in the morning on travel days, that means that the time we tell HIM that we're leaving is 5:45 am.

Why? Because there is ALWAYS something that we almost leave at home as we are walking out the door. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME! I hate feeling rushed and stressed out about being rushed. And that's going to stress out Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally, too, so we'll all just double and triple check things the night before...then that reduces the scrambling around.

"But what if we're hungry on the plane and they don't have anything keto/gluten free?"
No sweat. You bring your own snacks.

"But how are we going to get from the Orlando airport to the hotel?"
No worries! We're going to use Mears Connect. Basically same company that did Magical Express. A friend of mine used it in January of this year and said it works exactly the same way as before. Less expensive round trip than hiring a limo/towncar service. And definitely cheaper than Uber or Lyft, where we'd have to use 2 vehicles.

 

[VandVsmama]

Just learned something new on the Transportation board...

Apparently at the Orlando airport, they have this "Reserved powered by CLEAR" system, where you can reserve a TSA security check in time in order to avoid standing in mega long TSA check point lines.

https://www.clearme.com/reserve
And they also have it at the Phoenix airport!

We are totally going to use this.

 

[VandVsmama]

The Tron lightcycle roller coaster is probably going to be open before our trip! YAHOO!

 

[VandVsmama]

I've already got park reservations all set up! Here's the rough plan at the moment:

Day 1 - Fri 9/30
Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally drive to our house, spend the night.

Day 2 - Sat 10/1
We all fly together on Southwest Airlines to MCO, preferably on a direct flight and preferably first thing in the morning. I'd love to arrive there no later than 5 pm so we'll have time to settle into our room, put the Amazon Fresh order away, have time to eat dinner somewhere. Not planning on an ADR for dinner right now in case there are flight delays.

Day 3 - Sun 10/2
This will be our 1st park day! Will start the day at Magic Kingdom! Kids & I will eat breakfast in the room, DH, Uncle Bob, & Aunt Sally will probably skip breakfast and just stick with coffee.
TS goals for today: dinner at either Steakhouse 71 or CA Grill. Lunch at Skipper Canteen. Dinner today will be to celebrate Uncle Bob's birthday from the day before (we're traveling on his b-day!)

Day 4 - Mon 10/3
Starting the day at HS. Lunch will hopefully be at Brown Derby. Would like to get Uncle Bob a Savi's Workshop reservation. And we also want to have a drink in Oga's Cantina at some point on our trip. Dinner will be QS somewhere. We have park hoppers, so will probably hop to another park in the evening.

Day 5 - Tues 10/4
Tentative plan is for everybody to sleep in on this day. Brunch reservation at Whispering Canyon in the 10:30-ish time slot at WL. Pool time today, plus YDD wants to hit up Typhoon Lagoon, so hopefully it's open in October. Otherwise, we'll take YDD horseback riding at Fort Wilderness. Dinner hopefully at Tutto Italia at Epcot.

Day 6 - Wed 10/5
Starting off at HS again today. Lunch probably at Prime Time Cafe in HS, and dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table in MK (this is for Aunt Sally's benefit since she loves Cinderella). Normally, we just do 1 TS per day, but we are making an exception to that a couple of times on this trip.

Day 7 - Thurs 10/6
We'll start this day at AK. QS lunch at Flame Tree BBQ. QS dinner at Primo Piatto at the Riviera. Spend the evening either at Epcot or HS again.

Day 8 - Fri 10/7
Starting today at MK! If Hoop Dee Doo Revue is open, we'll have dinner there. Otherwise, options for dinner would be Artist Point at WL or Cinderella's Royal Table in MK (if we can't get an ADR for this earlier in the week). Lunch maybe at Geyser Point at WL. This would be a good day to do a pontoon boat rental from CR or WL.

Day 9 - Sat 10/8
Early morning at MK, if we have a late afternoon flight. Then the sad bus ride back to the airport to fly home!

Day 10 - Sun 10/9
Recuperate! Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally drive home.

 

[VandVsmama]

Based on a post I read on the Transportation board about Mears, I went and looked up some recent reviews on Tripadvisor of Mears. And oh my goodness, holy cow, the reviews lately are overwhelmingly terrible.

And by terrible, I'm talking about multiple parties being stranded at their resort with no ride to the airport at the end of their trip. Attempts to call Mears' customer service results in many of those stranded people on hold for an hour, rude customer service agents telling them in some cases that there's nothing they can do for them and the customer is on their own.

Friends of mine went to WDW in January and used Mears Connect without any problems. But now? Given all of these horrible reviews, there's no way that we are going to use them for our trip in October!

Some other options I'm looking at are:
- Quicksilver Tours - about $300 round trip
- Florida Tours - $330 round trip
- Ace Luxury Transportation - $280 (plus tip of course)
- 2 separate Lyft or Uber cars - $60-70 per car each way (so ~$280 before tip)

 

[snikki]

You may want to add Tony Hinds to your list. There’s a whole thread on the transportation board regarding him. I emailed him directly to set up. Reasonable prices and he stops for a grocery run if needed.

We’ve decided to use him since I’m planning on landing later in the evening with just my teen daughter. I would rather not do an uber late at night, in a different city and with my teen daughter and I want to get to my resort quickly since it’ll be later so I’m not feeling Mears. I’ve reached out to him and already booked for our November trip.

His email is : aobh607 at gmail

 

[VandVsmama]

You may want to add Tony Hinds to your list. There’s a whole thread on the transportation board regarding him. I emailed him directly to set up. Reasonable prices and he stops for a grocery run if needed.

We’ve decided to use him since I’m planning on landing later in the evening with just my teen daughter. I would rather not do an uber late at night, in a different city and with my teen daughter and I want to get to my resort quickly since it’ll be later so I’m not feeling Mears. I’ve reached out to him and already booked for our November trip.

His email is : aobh607 at gmail

Awesome! Thank you for the suggestion! I am going to contact him.

 

[VandVsmama]

Well, tomorrow is the day. Finally. When Southwest Airlines opens up their booking calendar for flights through early November. So I'm going to be up early in order to get hopefully the best possible deal for our October trip!

I also saw an article on wdwinfo.com talking about the return of Minnie Vans. We never used those when they were operational. I'm curious what the cost would be, but I'd be $50 that it'll be more expensive than a private transportation service!

 

[VandVsmama]

OMG THE HOOP DEE DO REVUE IS COMING BACK THIS SUMMER!!!!!!

 

[VandVsmama]

Today's the day! Southwest Airlines FINALLY opened up their booking calendar through early November. This means that we were able to FINALLY book our flights for the trip! Price ended up just about what I thought it would be (~$500 round trip per person, which includes the $25 per 'to/from' leg for Early Bird Check-in), so that's good! And since Southwest doesn't charge for checked luggage, that's an extra savings.

Here's the details of our flights!

Sat 10/1:
Departing PHX 8:05 am
Arrives MCO 3:15 pm
** DIRECT FLIGHT ** Yahoo! Hopefully, Southwest won't do the change-er-roo on us like they've done for so many other people.

Sat 10/8:
Departs MCO 4:20 pm
Arrives PHX 5:55 pm
This one is a direct flight as well! This will allow us to go to MK on our departure day for the morning. We'd need to plan on leaving AoA around 1:30 pm for the sad trip to the airport.

 

[VandVsmama]

Like I mentioned before, Uncle Bob & Aunt Sally are a little anxious about flying since it's been, like, forever since they went anywhere by plane. So they asked me to map out the details of arrival & departure day in terms of timeline. They said it helps them worry less about missing a flight. Here's what we've got so far:

Departure Day:

• ~4:30 am - I get up, wake everybody else up. Make coffee for all of the adults. Probably keto breakfast, too, since it'll be ~ 1:00 pm PHX time when we finally land in Orlando and there won't be a meal on the plane. Hm...I should probably get up at 4:15 so I have enough time to do everything. DH always is slow in the morning of departure day on a vacation.
• ~ 5:15 am - leave home, drive to airport. Probably ~35 min drive, but allotting for 45 min just in case. Flying out on a Saturday morning, so won't run into rush hour traffic.
• ~6:00 am - arrive at airport in PHX. Park car in long term lot. Take tram/fake-o-monorail to Terminal 4. Check in, check in our luggage, go through TSA security.
• ~6:30 am - probably done with all of the above. Get Uncle Bob to a companion bathroom before flight (there's one after TSA security checkpoint and also one before TSA).
• 8:05 am - Southwest flight leaves for Orlando! YAY!

Return Day:

• ~12:00 pm - take sad bus from MK back to AoA. Sometimes, you get a bus right away and sometimes, you have to wait awhile for the WDW transportation to show up...so that's why we're allowing for an hour for this.
• ~1:00 pm - make sure we're back at AoA by this time. Collect luggage from Bell Services. Get any last minute souvenirs from gift shop. Be out front of AoA ~10-15 min before official pick up time.
• ~ 1:30 pm - leave AoA in private transport to MCO. We are NOT going to use Mears Connect. LOTS of really bad reviews online lately!
• 4:20 pm - Southwest flight leaves for PHX.
• 5:55 pm - arrive back in PHX. Feed everybody somewhere at a restaurant on the way home.

 

[VandVsmama]

I updated Uncle Bob's profile today on our SW Airlines reservation to show that he's visually impaired. He won't need extra assistance at the airport or on the plane since Aunt Sally will be with him, but I figured it's best to mark it as such "just in case."

I really really hope that we can get Hoop Dee Doo reservations for our trip!

 

[VandVsmama]

It's been busy this past week! I bought a couple of odds and ends for our trip...

Like this pill organizer...


And a pack of plastic covers for our COVID vaccine cards...


And a pack of these, which YDD & I will use on the plane ride. Neither YDD or I care very much for Bluetooth wireless ear buds. for whatever reason, they hurt our ears after wearing them for about 15-20 minutes. The regular cheap wired ear buds are just way more comfortable. But our iPhones now require one of these connector thingies and I don't want to pay $25 or more for a single one directly from the Apple store.

 

[MaleficentMe]

Our 4 member family (49 M, 46 F, 16 F, 12 M) stayed in the Nemo family suite at AoA for 7 nights in November of 2020. I'm here to tell you, there's no way I would have wanted to stuff 2 other people in that! It was great to have the separate bedroom/bath for me and my DH, but the "beds" in the main section are NOT convenient to use. Both my kids ended up sleeping in the pull out against the window/wall, which stayed "pulled-out" the whole time we were there. The second bed is a murphy bed that, if used, would have removed the teeny-tiny "dining" table (aka, only place for a catch-all for the week,) and mostly blocked egress to/from the room. Even only using the one bed, it was sometimes treacherous trying to navigate through the tight spaces with the luggage/clothes/souvenirs.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but you mentioned that Uncle Bob has vision and mobility issues. Perhaps y'all are more organized and cleaner than we are (very likely! ) but I am scared just imagining someone with limited vision and a bum ankle trying to navigate the narrow trails. Just something to think about (and, I know, worry about. I'm sorry!)

Maybe others can chime in and have a totally different perspective/experience, and maybe I'm just being a Debbie Downer! Just don't want Uncle Bob's first WDW experience to include a visit to the ER!

 

[VandVsmama]

Our 4 member family (49 M, 46 F, 16 F, 12 M) stayed in the Nemo family suite at AoA for 7 nights in November of 2020. I'm here to tell you, there's no way I would have wanted to stuff 2 other people in that! It was great to have the separate bedroom/bath for me and my DH, but the "beds" in the main section are NOT convenient to use. Both my kids ended up sleeping in the pull out against the window/wall, which stayed "pulled-out" the whole time we were there. The second bed is a murphy bed that, if used, would have removed the teeny-tiny "dining" table (aka, only place for a catch-all for the week,) and mostly blocked egress to/from the room. Even only using the one bed, it was sometimes treacherous trying to navigate through the tight spaces with the luggage/clothes/souvenirs.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but you mentioned that Uncle Bob has vision and mobility issues. Perhaps y'all are more organized and cleaner than we are (very likely! ) but I am scared just imagining someone with limited vision and a bum ankle trying to navigate the narrow trails. Just something to think about (and, I know, worry about. I'm sorry!)

Maybe others can chime in and have a totally different perspective/experience, and maybe I'm just being a Debbie Downer! Just don't want Uncle Bob's first WDW experience to include a visit to the ER!

I think we'll be fine. The 4 of us in our immediate family are not "spreaders" (aka spread our stuff everywhere in a hotel room) and we'll be able to keep our stuff organized and not strewn about. Plus, Uncle Bob said that he memorizes where everything is when he goes into a hotel room so he doesn't bump into stuff. We'll store things like suitcases and other bags under the beds.

 

[VandVsmama]

Took ODD to the outlet mall this weekend to shop for prom shoes and ended up also getting her a pair of Skechers hiking sandals for WDW. They were 50% off! Now we just have to get some hiking/walking sandals for YDD, too.

 

[MickeyMinnieMary]

Following along!

My fiancé and I will be in WDW October 8th-21st for our honeymoon!