One day in the M.K.!

[ksinniger]

Hello DIS-Board members! I get so much pleasure reading your trip reports, so I've decided to add my voice to the mix. As you can see from my signature, my Disney love is barely two decades old. But it is fierce!

Who am I? My name is Kathy, and I’m a divorced government attorney who works in DC, lives in Lorton VA, and up until recently spent quite a lot of time shuffling 3 girls to and from various activities and appointments. This year, my youngest daughter (of 3) is graduating high school. Yes, yes, cue empty nest syndrome violins. But it's hard to hear them just yet, as we've been travelling a lot as she auditions for various Musical Theatre Performance college programs. Here she is being a cover model for some of her dance studio’s events this year, as well as performing at a benefit concert.




After three successive, bitterly cold weekends in New York City (including one major snowstorm), another weekend in Virginia Beach, and one night in Richmond, VA, it’s finally time to head to the Sunshine State! And when auditioning at Florida Southern College, which is conveniently located in Lakeland, a mere hour away from Walt Disney World, well, we would be remiss if we DIDN’T spend some time inside the bubble.

Here we both are, settling in on Amtrak for one of MANY NYC trips last month.



Planning this one was relatively easy, though I tried to make it complicated. We originally thought we’d take the auto train from VA to FL (we live 10 minutes from the Lorton end of the auto train), but the cost is insane, even if you’re willing to just have a regular seat for the entire ride (which I am not – my 52-year-old bones need to be able to stretch out to sleep). So we pivoted and found decent airfare plus a really good rental car rate through Costco for about half of what the auto train would have cost. If we had taken the auto train, we would have arrived in FL on Friday, February 20th. The audition is on the 21st, and we would have trained back on the 22nd. By flying, we gained all of Friday and all of Sunday. What to do with that time, asked no DIS member ever.

So, we’re flying to Orlando TOMORROW. We should arrive around 3 pm (barring issues) and will pick up our rental car and drive to the Villas at the Grand Floridian. We’ll probably stop to grab some drinks and snacks on the way, to keep in our car or our room. We’ve got an early dinner reservation (5:20 pm) at The Grand Floridian Café (buffets work better for my picky vegetarian kiddo), after which we’ll see how we’re feeling. We may do a little resort tour on the monorail for dessert/shopping, or we may just chill at the Grand Floridian and watch the fireworks and Electric Pageant. Or we may head straight to bed, as the next day is

ONE DAY IN THE M.K. (you’ve got to say those letters as "em" "kay" to make the alliteration work).

We plan on being here from early entry through at least the fireworks. Possibly later if we don’t catch the early Starlight Parade. At some point during the afternoon, we’ll move our car & stuff over to Saratoga Springs, where we’ll stay for the last 2 nights of our trip. We may even fit in a nap if we’re having luck with getting on rides (but I’m not super optimistic about that, as we all know it’s winter vacation for a lot of the northeast, plus yesterday was Mardi Gras). The goal is to have her in bed before midnight, so she can get a good night’s sleep before

AUDITION DAY! Let me know if you’re interested in hearing about this – as a parent of a performer, who is not one herself, this world was completely new to me. But I’ve learned so much I feel like I can provide some useful advice to anyone in need of it.

It’ll be along day in Lakeland – sign in starts at 8:45 am, and the auditions and school info sessions should go through the mid-afternoon. After that, we’ll meet up with a good friend for dinner, then drive back to the bubble and crash.

Our last day will be split between retail therapy at Disney Springs and getting some much-needed vitamin C at the pool. Then it’s back to MCO for a very late flight home. Currently taking bets on which of us manages to get out the door on time Monday morning.

So that’s the plan. I’ve got our lightening lanes all purchased, Magic Band+ charging, and Mickey ears all picked out. Just need to finish up this long, boring work day and then get home and do some packing. I’ll be back to bring you the highlights (and hopefully only a few lowlights) next week!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more . Best of luck to your daughter !

 

[Zipadeelady]

I hope all went well for your daughter! As a mom of a theater girl, I never realized how much I didn't know when mine started going to college auditions. I remember it like it was yesterday. The confidence, the questioning, the anxiety, then back to the confidence. Ugh. Mine is now a musical theater teacher at a high school. Not exactly what she first had in mind, but still doing what she loves.

Can't wait to hear about your trip.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I am hear to see how the one day went!

I love to hear about everyone's process to get into college. I wish her the best of luck!!!

 

[ksinniger]

We're back! The blizzard made it a little more hectic than we would have liked, but we enjoyed some fun in the Disney bubble, she had what she felt was a good audition, and now we're waiting on some news.

I hope all went well for your daughter! As a mom of a theater girl, I never realized how much I didn't know when mine started going to college auditions. I remember it like it was yesterday. The confidence, the questioning, the anxiety, then back to the confidence. Ugh. Mine is now a musical theater teacher at a high school. Not exactly what she first had in mind, but still doing what she loves.

Right! My oldest daughter wanted to go the MT route in college, but she was a senior in HS from 2020-21 and just didn't get the support/guidance she really needed to make it into a conservatory style program (thanks, COVID). But she ended up in a songwriting program at Belmont University and now she's got her degree and an album (check her out wherever you find music online -- Rachel Sinniger). So she ended up where she was meant to be.

I am hear to see how the one day went!

I don't think we could have planned it any better. Even with some decent crowds, we saw everything we wanted to see (except ride Peter Pan).

I love to hear about everyone's process to get into college.

This theatre college process has been insane. I feel like I could have a decent side-gig providing advice to parents. Which would be an excellent way to fund all future Disney trips!

I've got to get my photos sorted, but I should be able to get this trip report started soon!

 

[AZGurl]

Fellow Lorton resident here. Looking forward to hearing how it went.

 

[ksinniger]

We’ll start this trip report where every good report starts - travel day. When I originally started planning this trip, as I noted above, we thought we’d be on the auto train. But one look at the cost had me running to the airport instead. After a morning of last minute packing and getting our cats ready for their pet sitter, we headed to the airport for our noon flight. We grabbed food to bring on the plane, which ended up being delayed by about 20 minutes, all of which was made up in the air (yay!). And, despite it supposedly being a full flight, we ended up either an empty seat in our row, so we could spread out a bit.

Once on the ground, we found ourselves in the C terminal, which still looked all shiny and new. We found the very long line for our rental car, and proceeded to wait. And wait. And wait. We were in line for 90 minutes, and when we finally were assigned a car, the spot where the car was supposed to be was empty. Sigh.

After another stupidly long wait, we were finally led to an actual vehicle, and able to head in our way. But gone were thoughts of stopping - we’d be lucky to get to the Grand Floridian in time for our dinner reservation.

But driving luck was with us, and we arrived, parked, dropped our bags with bell services, and within minutes we were seated at the Grand Floridian Café. One margarita later, and all was well! And we were so hungry there was no time for photos. I had an amazing apple and walnut salad, followed by carnitas tacos. Josie had cajun pasta with shrimp (but without the sausage, since she doesn’t eat meat).

After dinner, we stopped by bell services to give our room number, and then we headed over to the DVC building to find our room. Imagine our surprise to open the door and see this view, which we definitely didn’t expect!

As soon as our luggage was delivered, I left Josie in the room so she could record herself singing songs for a callback for her high school’s spring musical. And, since she was using my phone to record, there are no photos to document my shopping within the Grand Flo, but I grabbed a DVC member pin and a Grand Floridian magnet from the Mercantile, and some bath beads and lip scrubs from Basin. Then I stopped in to the Enchanted Rose for another margarita and chatted with the bartender for a bit. It wasn’t very busy in there, which surprised me.

After paying my tab, I thought I’d sit in the lobby and listen to the piano player, but he finished up just as I got there, so I headed back to the DVC building and when I got back to the room, this was happening!

We’ve seen the electric pageant before, but we were so close we actually spoke with the tow boat operators as they passed by.

With this view, there was no way we WEREN’T going to watch the fireworks. But I decided to just sit and enjoy them, so no photos.

After that, it was time to go to bed, because early entry started at 7:30, and we needed to have our bags out of the room for resort transfer before heading to the park, which meant a very early alarm.

Next up, our one day in the M.K.!

 

[DLo]

What a view !