starseed
hooked
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2006
- Messages
- 298
My BFF and I have been planning this trip since the WWoHP had been announced and the time is almost, finally, here... We'll be boarding... nay, skipping merrily onto... our Westjet flight in Toronto to Orlando on the morning of Thursday, October 14th. 
I was originally hoping to go closer to Christmas because I have been OBSESSED with wanting to see WDW all done up Christmas style, but an utterly unpassable flight deal came along and VOILA - it just happened to land within Food & Wine time. SCORE!
It's a girls only trip. It'll be a 7-day trip back to our days of carefree and fancy-free days of old, when we'd be out to the wee hours of the night having partied, laughed and fun-ned. Sigh. Those were the days. (OMG - I might actually be OLD!
)
Ok... so we probably won't be reliving the wee hours (my, how those times seem so long ago...), but we'll at least stay and do it up 'til the end of MNSSHP, right? RIGHT?
All I have to say is: Thank goodness for Red Bull!
I just recently made the leap to pursue my life's work, so I'm in a building and transitioning stage and this is a budget trip. But to be honest, even when I had more disposable income, I've always enjoyed finding ways to save money and the Dis has been invaluable for information. So I hope I can give back with some tips, too.
Me: I'm in my mid-AHEM-30's. My first time at both WDW and USO was back in January 2007 when my DH and I were married. It was a childhood fantasy to go to Disney and when planning our wedding, I thought: "Why not?" Don't get me wrong, I was never the princess type, but it just seemed like a super awesome way to celebrate. And it was. And I'm hooked. I can't seem to stop going back. My DH on the other hand, not so much! (We've both discovered Vegas since...) But my BFF and I are also crazy Harry Potter fans, so why not plan a trip for us to spend some time together?
BFF: She is... I think almost 40? I'm terrible at keeping track. But you would never know it from looking at and knowing her (not that there's anything about 40 to worry about...!!). She is super fun and creative and we bring out the best and joyfulness in one another. We met about 15 years ago at work and were roommates for a period of time. She has since moved out of the city and we don't see each other too much now except for a couple of times a year. I know she is totally excited about this trip, too!
Our plans:
Thursday, October 14th - BFF is going to be getting on a bus at 3am from her town so we are both expecting that we won't get to do too much once we get to Orlando. But our flight is scheduled to get in to MCO at around 1:30pm. From there, we are going to hop into a cab and jump up and down in the back to encourage the driver to get us to the Hilton Garden Inn on International Drive as QUICKLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. We'll check-in an then hop in another cab over to Universal and over to IOA. Speedwalk over to WWoHP and if the line isn't too insane, get a ride in on Forbidden Journey and then a late lunch at Three Broomsticks. After that, I predict BFF will faint away with exhaustion and I hope to not have to carry her back over to the hotel.
Friday, October 15th - Hoping to start off at US. Experience some of the funny and surreal attractions (E.T., Terminator, and Twister!).
And then the rest of the fun and cool rides (MUMMY, ya!). And then be sad at the foot of the RipRockinRollinSomethingOrOtherCoaster to not be able to ride it. Then back over to IOA and WWoHP.
We're prepared to pick up some Express passes if necessary this weekend. I've been carefully monitoring the Universal forums and the crowds over at IOA appears to still be pretty heavy. I have a $25 Restaurant.com certificate for Bice, so we might check it out on Friday or Saturday.
Saturday, October 16th - Whatever we missed or want to do again at US and IOA. Hope to stay late on either Friday or Saturday at IOA to see WWoHP at night. And oh ya, also ride Jaws at night! Woo!
Sunday, October 17th - I was able to secure a $35 one-hour limo deal on Groupon today (not applicable for airport transfers) to transport us from the Hilton Garden Inn over to AKV where I've rented points for us to stay in a savanna view room.
BFF is a vet tech and I think she will just FLIP RIGHT OUT when she sees the animals wandering around outside the balcony doors. I have been renting points from a kind and wonderful DVC owner (whom I met here on the Dis) since our first trip and have been able to enjoy some of the DVC resorts for close to the same amount of money of a Value!
Anyhoo - so excited to share AKV with BFF and to surprise her with the limo transfer. (I'm also planning to get a quick grocery stop to stock up on some stuff to take advantage of the AKV studio features.) Oh and two final words for now about AKV: ZEBRA DOMES.
Sunday is also our night to attend MNSSHP, so that we didn't need to add an additional park day. Can't wait to get that crazy song stuck in my head for the rest of the year.
Monday, October 18th - Hoping to check out the late show of Fantasmic! We plan on trying to be as casual as possible so that we don't come back feeling like we need a vacation from our vacation!
My thought is that we can bounce back and forth between HS and Epcot for F&W. Would love, love, LOVE to get in TSM... but I know we won't have the patience to wait a zillion years to ride it. Fingers crossed that we can get to out to the park early enough and at least score a FP for some point during the day!
Tuesday, October 19th and Wednesday, October 20th - Loosey goosey. We'll be bouncing between F&W grazing to checking out the other things we want to do in AK and the rest of Epcot.
After MNSSHP, we'll unlikely end up going back to MK... except maybe for Wishes... I've been trying to secure Wishes Dessert Party tickets for about a month (soooo out of the loop!), but I doubt that will happen.
SO for this trip - No ADRs, not much in the way of park planning and a whole lot of expectation to have a ton of fun! Oh, but I signed up for TouringPlans today (using a coupon code), so I will be using that religiously while at WDW. (I have a mini-obsession with doing TSM without having to wake up too early and pushing over people with strollers and such...)
That's it for now. I'm absolutely TERRIBLE at completing TRs, but I hope to do a live one while there so that it will give me some ME time and not overwhelm BFF!
I was originally hoping to go closer to Christmas because I have been OBSESSED with wanting to see WDW all done up Christmas style, but an utterly unpassable flight deal came along and VOILA - it just happened to land within Food & Wine time. SCORE!
It's a girls only trip. It'll be a 7-day trip back to our days of carefree and fancy-free days of old, when we'd be out to the wee hours of the night having partied, laughed and fun-ned. Sigh. Those were the days. (OMG - I might actually be OLD!
)Ok... so we probably won't be reliving the wee hours (my, how those times seem so long ago...), but we'll at least stay and do it up 'til the end of MNSSHP, right? RIGHT?
All I have to say is: Thank goodness for Red Bull!
I just recently made the leap to pursue my life's work, so I'm in a building and transitioning stage and this is a budget trip. But to be honest, even when I had more disposable income, I've always enjoyed finding ways to save money and the Dis has been invaluable for information. So I hope I can give back with some tips, too.
Me: I'm in my mid-AHEM-30's. My first time at both WDW and USO was back in January 2007 when my DH and I were married. It was a childhood fantasy to go to Disney and when planning our wedding, I thought: "Why not?" Don't get me wrong, I was never the princess type, but it just seemed like a super awesome way to celebrate. And it was. And I'm hooked. I can't seem to stop going back. My DH on the other hand, not so much! (We've both discovered Vegas since...) But my BFF and I are also crazy Harry Potter fans, so why not plan a trip for us to spend some time together?
BFF: She is... I think almost 40? I'm terrible at keeping track. But you would never know it from looking at and knowing her (not that there's anything about 40 to worry about...!!). She is super fun and creative and we bring out the best and joyfulness in one another. We met about 15 years ago at work and were roommates for a period of time. She has since moved out of the city and we don't see each other too much now except for a couple of times a year. I know she is totally excited about this trip, too!
Our plans:
Thursday, October 14th - BFF is going to be getting on a bus at 3am from her town so we are both expecting that we won't get to do too much once we get to Orlando. But our flight is scheduled to get in to MCO at around 1:30pm. From there, we are going to hop into a cab and jump up and down in the back to encourage the driver to get us to the Hilton Garden Inn on International Drive as QUICKLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. We'll check-in an then hop in another cab over to Universal and over to IOA. Speedwalk over to WWoHP and if the line isn't too insane, get a ride in on Forbidden Journey and then a late lunch at Three Broomsticks. After that, I predict BFF will faint away with exhaustion and I hope to not have to carry her back over to the hotel.
Friday, October 15th - Hoping to start off at US. Experience some of the funny and surreal attractions (E.T., Terminator, and Twister!).
And then the rest of the fun and cool rides (MUMMY, ya!). And then be sad at the foot of the RipRockinRollinSomethingOrOtherCoaster to not be able to ride it. Then back over to IOA and WWoHP. We're prepared to pick up some Express passes if necessary this weekend. I've been carefully monitoring the Universal forums and the crowds over at IOA appears to still be pretty heavy. I have a $25 Restaurant.com certificate for Bice, so we might check it out on Friday or Saturday.
Saturday, October 16th - Whatever we missed or want to do again at US and IOA. Hope to stay late on either Friday or Saturday at IOA to see WWoHP at night. And oh ya, also ride Jaws at night! Woo!
Sunday, October 17th - I was able to secure a $35 one-hour limo deal on Groupon today (not applicable for airport transfers) to transport us from the Hilton Garden Inn over to AKV where I've rented points for us to stay in a savanna view room.
BFF is a vet tech and I think she will just FLIP RIGHT OUT when she sees the animals wandering around outside the balcony doors. I have been renting points from a kind and wonderful DVC owner (whom I met here on the Dis) since our first trip and have been able to enjoy some of the DVC resorts for close to the same amount of money of a Value!
Anyhoo - so excited to share AKV with BFF and to surprise her with the limo transfer. (I'm also planning to get a quick grocery stop to stock up on some stuff to take advantage of the AKV studio features.) Oh and two final words for now about AKV: ZEBRA DOMES.
Sunday is also our night to attend MNSSHP, so that we didn't need to add an additional park day. Can't wait to get that crazy song stuck in my head for the rest of the year.
Monday, October 18th - Hoping to check out the late show of Fantasmic! We plan on trying to be as casual as possible so that we don't come back feeling like we need a vacation from our vacation!
My thought is that we can bounce back and forth between HS and Epcot for F&W. Would love, love, LOVE to get in TSM... but I know we won't have the patience to wait a zillion years to ride it. Fingers crossed that we can get to out to the park early enough and at least score a FP for some point during the day!
Tuesday, October 19th and Wednesday, October 20th - Loosey goosey. We'll be bouncing between F&W grazing to checking out the other things we want to do in AK and the rest of Epcot.
After MNSSHP, we'll unlikely end up going back to MK... except maybe for Wishes... I've been trying to secure Wishes Dessert Party tickets for about a month (soooo out of the loop!), but I doubt that will happen.
SO for this trip - No ADRs, not much in the way of park planning and a whole lot of expectation to have a ton of fun! Oh, but I signed up for TouringPlans today (using a coupon code), so I will be using that religiously while at WDW. (I have a mini-obsession with doing TSM without having to wake up too early and pushing over people with strollers and such...)
That's it for now. I'm absolutely TERRIBLE at completing TRs, but I hope to do a live one while there so that it will give me some ME time and not overwhelm BFF!
I know there are also many others out there who have had weight struggles in their lives and mine is certainly one which has stuck around with me for as long as I can remember! The one great thing about age is that I have come to accept and like myself more, but the weight thing has definitely been a toughie for me (and harder to get off as I get older!). *sigh* I'll be honest, once I do start my TR, there will likely be very little, if any, pics of me!! 
