Reality is a hassle. I’m ready to go home to Fantasyland. September 2024 Pre-Trip Report.

[lulu2121]

Welcome to my very first pre-trip report! I once started a trip report a few years back, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t quite finish it. I am going to try to follow through this time with both a pre-trip report and an actual trip report. I hope you’ll stick with me! I need an outlet for some energy and pre-trip excitement. I usually dive deep into reading others’ trip reports prior to a trip to satisfy that need, but I’m finding less people are writing these days. This will be a welcome distraction.

The Who, What, When, Where, and Why
First, let me introduce myself. I am Christie, a 46-year-old legal assistant/paralegal, mother of two grown daughters, and granny to the best 4-year-old ever. My favorite park is Magic Kingdom, my favorite ride is BTMRR (though GOTG is awesome, BTMRR gets the nostalgia vote), my favorite character is Piglet, and my favorite resort is Boulder Ridge Villas at Wilderness Lodge.

My husband, Doug, is my only traveling companion for this trip. He’s a 56-year-old mechanic who keeps semi-trucks on the road. He shares the aforementioned children and grandchild. His favorite park is Magic Kingdom, and his favorite ride was Expedition Everest, but GOTG has surpassed it. He says his favorite character is Tigger. His favorite resort is also BRV.

Here are photos of us from our trip in September 2023.


Here's the whole family. This was taken on our October 2022 trip. It includes both daughters, son-in-law, granddaughter, and my parents.


And one of our granddaughter, ET, just because it’s my report and I can.


This is going to be the longest trip we have ever taken anywhere. We will at be WDW from September 5, 2024 through September 22, 2024. 17 nights! We are staying at AKV Kidani in a standard studio for the first two nights, 9/5-9/7, and the remainder of the trip will be at AKV Jambo House in a standard studio. We are not DVC members, though most of our stays are at DVC resorts on rented points. The member we are renting from for this trip has waitlisted the two nights reserved at Kidani for Jambo House, so we are hopeful this comes through and our entire stay will be in one room. We’ve done many split stays so that isn’t intimidating, but it just seems unnecessary this time around if we can avoid moving!

Edited to add – Between the time of writing this and posting this, I received an email that our waitlist has come through. We will now be staying the entire trip in standard studio at Jambo House!

This trip was planned to take place immediately after the wedding of our younger daughter. The wedding was scheduled for Saturday, September 7, near our hometown in Southern Indiana (we’re 30 minutes outside of Louisville, Kentucky for reference). Originally, we were scheduled to leave on Sunday, 9/8, and stay two weeks through Sunday, 9/22. Unfortunately, the wedding was called off about a month ago. It was a mutual decision. The dust has settled, and my fingers are crossed I’ll get some money back if the venue can rebook the date.

Since Doug doesn’t work on Fridays, and I’d already scheduled to be off the day before the wedding, I hatched a plan to head to WDW a few days earlier. We tinkered with leaving on Friday, 9/6, but Doug’s birthday is Thursday, 9/5, so leaving that day obviously made more sense! I looked at both of our remaining PTO days, and we both had time we could take. Within a couple of hours, the DVC member we rented points from had secured reservations for the additional days, I changed our flights, and we were set!

178 more days to go!

 

[jo-jo]

Yes, obviously more time at Disney makes sense. . Why not round it up to an even three weeks? I’ll take any reason you’d like.

Nice you can stay in one spot. We’ve done many split stays but prefer to stay in one spot now.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more

 

[lulu2121]

Yes, obviously more time at Disney makes sense. . Why not round it up to an even three weeks? I’ll take any reason you’d like.

Nice you can stay in one spot. We’ve done many split stays but prefer to stay in one spot now.

I tried for three weeks! Vacation never feels long enough, but I couldn't convince Doug to make that leap. He doesn't have quite enough vacation time left this year to make it work.

Following along. Looking forward to reading more

Thanks!

 

[lulu2121]

I really miss making ADRs at the 180-day mark. It made the trip feel closer and like you were actively doing something to prepare for it. Right now, I just feel like I’m waiting. And waiting. And still waiting.

We’ve made 20+ trips to WDW over the years. I only went once as a child when I was 10, and Doug never went. My second trip was at 18, almost 19, as a sort of last family trip with my parents and brother. Doug didn’t go until we started taking our kids in 2004 when they were 2 and 6. We went about every 3-4 years as the kids were growing up and always stayed offsite. We didn’t become serious enthusiasts until 2015. Doug and I took our first adults-only trip for our anniversary that year, and it was also the first time we stayed onsite. We did a split stay with 4 nights at CSR and 2 nights at BLT.


That trip began an expensive habit, and we began making multiple trips a year in 2016.




For the upcoming September trip, we will be flying Southwest to MCO from Louisville on a direct flight. We depart on Thursday 9/5 at 8:00 a.m. and will arrive in Orlando at 10:05 a.m. We live about 30 minutes from the airport, and my parents will play chauffeur that morning. They live about 3 miles down the road from us, and there won’t be much of any traffic at 6:00 a.m. I’m estimating we’ll be to AKL by about 11:30 this day if there are no flight delays. I haven’t decided if we’ll use Uber/Lyft, Mears, or a car service yet, but I’m leaning toward the car service. We’ve had good luck in the past with Florida Towncar. It isn’t the fanciest option, but you can’t beat the price.

We are purchasing annual passes for this trip. We’ve held APs a couple of times over the years, but this will be the first time since Covid. We had planned to buy them a couple of years ago, but I hesitated during that brief window when they were on sale in fall 2021 (I think it was fall 2021 anyway), and then sales stopped again for a long time. We adjusted the trips we took during that period into mostly resort stays and only bought tickets for a day or two here and there. This time, we are going all out and in full force. There will be lots of park time, with both rope drops and park closes, and park hopping.

We also plan to use the APs in February 2025 to take ET back to WDW! She made her first trip in October 2022 with the whole family. Doug and I had always planned to take ET shortly before her third birthday. That trip was supposed to be just her with Doug and me, but then her mama (our older daughter, Kelsee) wanted to come along, then my mama wanted to come along, and then G (our younger daughter) chimed in that she wanted to come too! It didn’t take much to convince my Dad since he’s wrapped around ET’s little finger, and my son-in-law didn’t really stand a chance at protesting and came along for the ride. It was also SIL’s first trip. For the February 2025 trip, Kelsee is joining us. SIL doesn’t want to go. He had fun the last time but also thought it was too much work. He’d prefer a lay-on-the-beach-type of vacation. We stayed at the Grand Floridian in 2022, and we decided this is going to be our tradition with ET. We’re already booked a standard studio for February 1-8, 2025.

We will use the APs again for a week in May 2025 and from August 23-September 6, 2025.

Since we are arriving on Doug’s birthday this September, I let him decide how that day should be spent. I normally would skip going to a park on a travel day, especially on a long trip, but since we’ll have APs, it doesn’t really matter as we’re not wasting a park ticket for a partial day! After much internal debate with himself and reading every menu at least twice, Doug finally decided he wants to go to Epcot on his birthday and have dinner at Space 220 that evening. This is a new restaurant for us, and I hope it doesn’t disappoint. The menu sounds good, and I don’t mind the prix fixe pricing. So we will start the day in Epcot by about 1:00, will activate our APs, tour the Food & Wine booths for lunch, possibly hit a ride or two, and then have dinner around 7:00. I may purchase ILLs for GOTG for use in the afternoon. I will also try for a boarding group using the virtual queue, but I don’t know if the timing will work out. I figure it will be the one time I snag an early boarding group, and we won’t be in the park in time to use it. I could try at the 1:00 drop instead, but then our group would likely be called during dinner. We’ll see how it goes. We don’t plan to stay for Luminous this night and will head back to the resort after dinner to check out our room and unpack our luggage

170 more days to go!

 

[jrmint427]

Edited to add – Between the time of writing this and posting this, I received an email that our waitlist has come through. We will now be staying the entire trip in standard studio at Jambo House!

Following along! Very exciting that you will be able to stay in Jambo House the whole time. It's also exciting that you'll be getting the AP and making good use of it through 2025!

 

[lulu2121]

Following along! Very exciting that you will be able to stay in Jambo House the whole time. It's also exciting that you'll be getting the AP and making good use of it through 2025!

Welcome! I’m so glad not to have to move! It just makes everything easier!

 

[lulu2121]

Plans Day 2 - 9/6

For the second day of our trip, we plan to rope drop Magic Kingdom. I’m hoping for low crowds as this should be a MNSSHP night. We’ve done the party several times in the past, but we plan to skip it this year. I’ll expect we’ll hit as many rides as possible this day. I don’t intend to buy Genie+ at any point during the trip. I figure that we’ve seen and done it all, and we have multiple days in each park. We will leave the park between 4:00 and 5:00, and we will boat over to Wilderness Lodge for dinner at one of our favorite places, Geyser Point!

There is truly nothing better than a bison burger and a Blue Moon while sitting at this bar.



I might be weird, but I prefer sitting at the bar itself to a table in this restaurant. I think we’ve eaten here more times than anywhere else on property. We always make the trek over to Geyser Point even when we stay at another resort. This resort is truly my happy place and feels like home. If we ever buy into DVC, it will be at BRV!

We plan to have a leisurely dinner and drinks this evening. I’m sure we’ll take a walk around the resort as well before catching the boat back to MK and then a bus back to AKL.

I will likely schedule a Kroger delivery to be delivered late this evening after our return to AKL. I tried Amazon Prime/Fresh/whatever it was way back when it first started for groceries, and then Instacart several times since 2021. I’ve also used Drizly for alcohol delivery. On our September 2023 trip, I finally gave Kroger delivery a try. It was by far the easiest and least expensive option. Instacart sometimes has good prices or runs a sale, but the fees and then the tip kill me. Their drivers also tend to get lost, and I’ve never had an order where they didn’t have to call me about something. Kroger uses the real in-store prices/sales, allows use of their digital coupons, lets me accumulate fuel points (Kroger is our store of choice at home), does not add fees (like Instacart’s heavy items fee), doesn’t accept tips, and delivers for only $9.95. After using the service last year, I’ve started having groceries delivered at home and joined Boost so delivery is now free. We’ll order 2-3 cases of bottled water, some grocery items/snack stuff, and alcohol. I usually make margaritas for our pool days so tequila will be a must. We plan to buy resort refillable mugs for this trip because The Mara is easy to get to for refills, and these are great for pool days.

163 more days to go!

 

[lulu2121]

I’ve been putting off an update because I did a thing last week. Ya’ll know where this is going, don’t you? Here’s the wordy explanation anyway.

Because of Doug’s work, he has to schedule his vacation time in November of the year before, so we’ve had a trip planned for May 2024 for 6 months (and we’d been talking about it for 6 months before that!). We were planning for 5 nights in Gatlinburg from May 5-10, driving as it is about 4.5 hours away, and keeping it a cheap trip. At the end of January, Doug started making comments about being ready for vacation and how nice it would be to lay by the pool in the sun. I laughed at him, which he didn’t appreciate, but we’ve been to Gatlinburg probably 5-6 times this exact week of May because that’s when our anniversary falls, it’s where we honeymooned, and it was the only quick and easy getaway we took without our kids when they were young. Averages are between about 50-70 degrees. That’s not pool weather to me unless I’m in WDW in January. We went to Gatlinburg three years ago for our anniversary, and I don’t think I even packed shorts! I reminded him of all of this, and then started looking online for warmer (but still cheap) places to go farther south. I was fine with a condo on the beach anywhere that is within a 12-hour drive from home, but I also looked at WDW and Orlando in general.

In mid-February, I found an AMAZING deal at Margaritaville Orlando for a 2-bedroom cottage through Priceline for a price so low I was sure it would not let me book it – like a 90% discount! But I did book it, and the reservation went through! I received a confirmation from both Priceline and the company that rents out the cottages at Margaritaville Orlando for a 7-night stay from May 4-11. We used credits and points to book airfare with Southwest and only paid about $100 out of pocket for flights. A rental car would be almost $400 for the week, but we were still coming out spending less to go to Florida for 2 extra nights than the original trip to Gatlinburg. I was sure I’d receive an email at some point canceling this reservation because the rate was so low and it had to be a mistake. The shininess started wearing off this AMAZING deal when Doug kept asking if I had a backup plan just in case that happens last minute. Also, we realized Margaritaville does not allow you to carry in any outside food or beverages to the pool area. Disney has spoiled us by letting us bring our own alcohol and snacks (though we still buy breakfast or lunch on pool days) to the pool. While sometimes this would not matter to us, this was planned to be a pretty much pool only vacation. We would spend the majority of each day at the pool (like 10 to 5ish) and then head out somewhere for dinner each evening. Since we’d have a kitchen, I was figuring we’d make our own breakfast/lunch and likely take sandwiches and snacks to the pool. This would either mean a lot more money at the pool bar for food and drinks or a lot more time in the cottage. Cost would balance out somewhat as I wouldn’t get a drink with dinner because I’d be driving to and from, but I lose a little fun there too, and again, Disney has spoiled us with free transportation (though we do use Uber a few times each trip). Some of the online reviews were also making me nervous – people seem to either love it or hate it, but I felt like I was seeing a lot of complaints. Our expectations are pretty low so this was a small worry. I just need the room to be clean and the air conditioner to work, and I’m usually happy.

Well, last week I was messing around on the WDW website. Resort availability has been really low because there is a cheerleading competition May 2-5. Values are pretty much completely booked with only AOA suites available, and even the moderates are really booked up. DVC is all booked up and confirmed reservations are hard to come by. I searched every way possible, less days, more days, seeing if I could make a split stay work, etc. It took me a while fiddling around with it and booking and then modifying, but I finally booked All-Star Movies for 8 nights from May 4-12. I don’t know how this reservation came up – someone must have canceled a room and I got lucky! This was just before the 30-day mark, so that may have helped me out. Because of the dumb way WDW reservations work and their special offers, it was actually $100 less to book the 8 nights with the special offer rate than to just book the 7 nights I needed at the standard rate because the special didn’t apply to the 7 nights. This seems really dumb because it was for the stay 5 nights or longer deal, but it must have excluded Saturday to Saturday stays. Doug and I talked this over, and we decided we’d rather stay at WDW even in a value than deal with the unknown at Margaritaville Orlando and the worry about possible last-minute cancellation. We won’t need the rental car for WDW, so we save some money there and will come out spending about $700 more to stay at Movies.

That was on Tuesday last week. By Wednesday evening, we decided we might as well just purchase those APs a little earlier and use them for this trip. I was planning to buy them within the next month anyway. Once I pointed out to Doug that we’d still be using them for the same amount of time/weeks and were just rearranging, he jumped onboard. We’ll use the APs for the September 2024 and February 2025 trips already planned and booked, take a two-week trip in late April/early May 2025, and then do something other than Disney for fall 2025. This keeps us at 6 weeks in WDW with the APs. That was some pretty good Disney reasoning and math!

Below are our rough plans for the May trip.

Saturday, May, 4 - Day 1 – Flight arrives at 9:25 am. We plan to drop our bags at Movies and head to Epcot where we will lunch around at the Flower & Garden booths. Not sure how long we’ll stay, but this is our only plan for the day. Any rides will be viewed as a bonus. We may end up back at the resort at the pool.

Day 2 – Rope drop Animal Kingdom and hope to grab lunch at Yak & Yeti using my Landry’s Select card for priority seating without an ADR. Depending on when we leave AK, we may have some time at the pool. We’ll finish the day at Magic Kingdom.

Day 3 – It’s our 24th anniversary! We’re planning for a pool day with an evening at Disney Springs. We have dinner scheduled at 6:15 at Wine Bar George. I’m sure we’ll grab some cookies and cake at Gideon’s as well.

Day 4 – MK all day. We’ll probably take a break and head over to WL by boat for lunch at Geyser Point. If we didn’t watch Happily Ever after on Day 2, we’ll be sure to catch it this night.

Day 5 – We’ll spend the morning/early afternoon at the pool and then head to Epcot for late afternoon/evening. We haven’t seen Luminous yet, so we will for sure stay through closing to see it.

Day 6 – Pool day with dinner at Summer House on the Lake at Disney Springs at 6:45. I’ve seen some mixed reviews about the cookies here. Any thoughts? Doug already pointed out that Salt & Straw is just across the way so ice cream may win out over cookies!

Day 7 – We’ll rope drop MK again. No reservations or other plans. We may decide to hope to DHS in the evening, but we’ll play it by ear.

Saturday, May 11 - Day 8 – Departure Day. I know, you’re thinking, but wait, you booked your stay through May 12, what is going on? I did book the hotel through May 12, but flights are so much higher on Sundays, Doug would need an additional day off work (he starts his work week on Sundays), and remember, it was $100 less to book this night than to not book this night because of the special offer rate and availability versus the standard rate. Our flight doesn’t depart until 6:00 pm so this will allow us use of the room this day before we need to head to the airport around 3ish. We’re not sure yet how we’ll spend this day. We may just go to the pool or we may decide on a park. It feels good to have some flexibility and options!

Honestly, planning for the May trip was harder than I thought. It’s basically a bonus trip, and I stared at my blank scheduling calendar (I have a color coded calendar form I created years ago that I use for each trip) for a good long time without any inspiration on where to start. We only have two ADRs for this entire trip! That feels so foreign to me as we typically have at least one ADR a day.

26 days to go ‘til the May trip! 150 days ‘til September!

 

[lulu2121]

One more post about the May trip, and then I promise to get back to September!

I bought our annual passes since my last update! Saved $150 by using my Target RedCard to purchase Disney gift cards and then used the gifts cards to pay for the passes. Annoying notes about this, you can only buy up to $500 per gift card at Target, you can only combine up to $1,000 on each gift card at disneygiftcards, and you can only use one gift card to purchase APs online. Minor panic moment, but I had to call Disney to buy the APs over the phone so multiple gift cards could be applied, which took exactly 7 minutes. No wait time on the phone, and the cast member was awesome as I had 4 gift cards to enter.

I've also made our park pass reservations. And then we tinkered with our resort stay and our schedule. We are now staying May 4-7 at AKL Jambo House in a value studio and May 7-11 at CSR! We’re both excited about this plan and love AKL and CSR! Heck, we loved CSR before the Tower and the additional dining options. We’ve never stayed in the Tower and probably won’t. I love the Casitas and Ranchos areas. Maybe it's because it was the first onsite resort we stayed at. I don't know, but after 5-6 stays, I still love it. We have a water view room so we’ll see where we end up this time.

I usually don't put in room requests. Maybe I'm not picky or hard to please, or may be the room assignment gods have heard my past prayers. I'm only half joking about that last one. For our last stay at Boulder Ridge, we got exactly the room I would have requested. Some may have thought the room was in an awful location, but it was where I wanted to be - third floor at the far end of the hallway on the pool/lake side. It's a long walk to the elevator, but its right next to the stairs making it the quickest way to the pool and back. So think positive thoughts and put some good energy out there, and maybe you'll get what you want.

Our plans now are:
Saturday, May, 4 - Day 1 –After arrival, we’ll head to Epcot to lunch around Flower & Garden booths. Evening by the pool.
Day 2 – Morning by the pool. Head to Magic Kingdom for the afternoon/evening.
Day 3 – Breakfast at Boma, relax by the pool, anniversary dinner at Wine Bar George and spend some time at Disney Springs. We're hoping to catch some live music and just enjoy the atmosphere.
Day 4 – We switch resorts this day. We’ll stay by the pool at AKL until our room is ready at CSR, and then Uber to CSR with our luggage. We’ll head to MK for the evening.
Day 5 – Rope drop DHS with a late lunch at 50s Prime Time. We may try to grab dinner at Three Bridges.
Day 6 – Breakfast at Rix followed by some pool time. We head to Epcot in the afternoon.
Day 7 – Rope drop MK. We may head to WL for lunch at Geyser Point or we may just stay in the park. We have a late reservation at Summer House on the Lake for dinner at Disney Springs.
Day 8 – Rope drop AK. Be back to the resort around 2:00 for pickup for ride to the airport.

I bought new MagicBands. These were on sale at Disney Store, plus I had a discount code and Doug had a free shipping code. Doug got the Passholder one and I went with Horace and Clarabelle. I'm so glad I got this one - it's really cute and fun.



I’ve began pre-packing, or at least examining my stuff for the purpose of pre-packing. I pulled out my bin of Disney/vacation stuff, looked at the stack of books I started accumulating over the last few months for vacation reading, and pulled out shorts from the last few years to see what fits.


I read a lot on vacation and will likely pack at least five books for the May trip. I usually leave a stack of books in the laundry room of the resort when we depart. If you ever see us around, feel free to hit me up if you need a book!

On the clothing front, I have lost some weight since last fall, so YAY! me. I dug out some old shorts in a smaller size from years past that now fit properly/comfortably again. I have some swimsuits that I can make do with on this trip, but I did order a couple of new ones to try. We’ll see how that goes when they arrive. I ordered a few new t-shirts from Etsy for this trip. Doug got some new swim trunks from Target, but he is otherwise in good shape.

I’d like to think we can fit everything in two carry-ons and a tote bag, but who am I trying to fool? And why stress out about it when bags are free on Southwest? I swear, we always end up with one more bag than I originally intend to pack. I’d like to not check bags for this trip just because we shouldn’t need nearly as much stuff as we normally take, but we’ll see how it goes. I originally thought hair products would likely be the deciding factor, but then I realized the sunscreen is what is going to get me! I know I can add it to my grocery order to have delivered, but we’ll see.

I do need to decide which form of transportation to use to/from the airport to the resorts. I’m leaning towards Mears Connect. We have not tried Mears yet, but I’d like to before our trip in February with our daughter and granddaughter. I’m thinking it will be the easiest method with a kid who would otherwise need to be in a car seat. We did use Sunshine Flyer last May and had a great experience, but that was before the merger of the two. Any thoughts?

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we live just outside of Louisville, Kentucky, and we both work in the city. We are now in full Derby season around here, and there is so much stuff to do and so many things going on in the 2 weeks prior to the Kentucky Derby. The next two weeks will fly by! Did I happen to mention we’re actually leaving for this trip on Derby Day? LOL, I’m hoping for a less than full plane ride as most people are trying to be in town instead of leaving it that day! We never go to the track for the Derby, but I do feel bad that we are missing two great Derby parties since we’re leaving that morning. And fun fact, we actually got married on Derby Day 24 years ago. So Derby Day always feels a little more like our anniversary than the date May 6, but that means we get to celebrate it twice.

13 days to go! 137 until the September trip!

 

[jrmint427]

I read a lot on vacation and will likely pack at least five books for the May trip.

Your plans are shaping up nicely and sound great! That is an impressive amount of books while on a Disney trip! It's fun to see your book options. I loved Eleanor Oliphant and really liked The Last Mrs. Parrish too. The Last Love Note has been sitting on my nightstand for awhile, I need pick that one up soon.

 

[tracylynnhare]

I really miss making ADRs at the 180-day mark. It made the trip feel closer and like you were actively doing something to prepare for it. Right now, I just feel like I’m waiting. And waiting. And still waiting.

We’ve made 20+ trips to WDW over the years. I only went once as a child when I was 10, and Doug never went. My second trip was at 18, almost 19, as a sort of last family trip with my parents and brother. Doug didn’t go until we started taking our kids in 2004 when they were 2 and 6. We went about every 3-4 years as the kids were growing up and always stayed offsite. We didn’t become serious enthusiasts until 2015. Doug and I took our first adults-only trip for our anniversary that year, and it was also the first time we stayed onsite. We did a split stay with 4 nights at CSR and 2 nights at BLT.
View attachment 843351

That trip began an expensive habit, and we began making multiple trips a year in 2016.

View attachment 843352View attachment 843353
View attachment 843354View attachment 843355

For the upcoming September trip, we will be flying Southwest to MCO from Louisville on a direct flight. We depart on Thursday 9/5 at 8:00 a.m. and will arrive in Orlando at 10:05 a.m. We live about 30 minutes from the airport, and my parents will play chauffeur that morning. They live about 3 miles down the road from us, and there won’t be much of any traffic at 6:00 a.m. I’m estimating we’ll be to AKL by about 11:30 this day if there are no flight delays. I haven’t decided if we’ll use Uber/Lyft, Mears, or a car service yet, but I’m leaning toward the car service. We’ve had good luck in the past with Florida Towncar. It isn’t the fanciest option, but you can’t beat the price.

We are purchasing annual passes for this trip. We’ve held APs a couple of times over the years, but this will be the first time since Covid. We had planned to buy them a couple of years ago, but I hesitated during that brief window when they were on sale in fall 2021 (I think it was fall 2021 anyway), and then sales stopped again for a long time. We adjusted the trips we took during that period into mostly resort stays and only bought tickets for a day or two here and there. This time, we are going all out and in full force. There will be lots of park time, with both rope drops and park closes, and park hopping.

We also plan to use the APs in February 2025 to take ET back to WDW! She made her first trip in October 2022 with the whole family. Doug and I had always planned to take ET shortly before her third birthday. That trip was supposed to be just her with Doug and me, but then her mama (our older daughter, Kelsee) wanted to come along, then my mama wanted to come along, and then G (our younger daughter) chimed in that she wanted to come too! It didn’t take much to convince my Dad since he’s wrapped around ET’s little finger, and my son-in-law didn’t really stand a chance at protesting and came along for the ride. It was also SIL’s first trip. For the February 2025 trip, Kelsee is joining us. SIL doesn’t want to go. He had fun the last time but also thought it was too much work. He’d prefer a lay-on-the-beach-type of vacation. We stayed at the Grand Floridian in 2022, and we decided this is going to be our tradition with ET. We’re already booked a standard studio for February 1-8, 2025.

We will use the APs again for a week in May 2025 and from August 23-September 6, 2025.

Since we are arriving on Doug’s birthday this September, I let him decide how that day should be spent. I normally would skip going to a park on a travel day, especially on a long trip, but since we’ll have APs, it doesn’t really matter as we’re not wasting a park ticket for a partial day! After much internal debate with himself and reading every menu at least twice, Doug finally decided he wants to go to Epcot on his birthday and have dinner at Space 220 that evening. This is a new restaurant for us, and I hope it doesn’t disappoint. The menu sounds good, and I don’t mind the prix fixe pricing. So we will start the day in Epcot by about 1:00, will activate our APs, tour the Food & Wine booths for lunch, possibly hit a ride or two, and then have dinner around 7:00. I may purchase ILLs for GOTG for use in the afternoon. I will also try for a boarding group using the virtual queue, but I don’t know if the timing will work out. I figure it will be the one time I snag an early boarding group, and we won’t be in the park in time to use it. I could try at the 1:00 drop instead, but then our group would likely be called during dinner. We’ll see how it goes. We don’t plan to stay for Luminous this night and will head back to the resort after dinner to check out our room and unpack our luggage

170 more days to go!

Your trip sounds AMAZING! Mine is a lot more low key, lol. Aug 30 - Sep 9. I haven't been in several years, but previously when we would go (almost always the first week/10 days of September, we rarely needed FastPass or anything like that. Just wondering if the crowds are higher now this time of year? I recall my daughter sitting on BTTMR and riding it as many times in a row as she wanted without even having to get off the ride. I am hoping that the crowds are still "VERY LOW" this time of year!

 

[lulu2121]

Your plans are shaping up nicely and sound great! That is an impressive amount of books while on a Disney trip! It's fun to see your book options. I loved Eleanor Oliphant and really liked The Last Mrs. Parrish too. The Last Love Note has been sitting on my nightstand for awhile, I need pick that one up soon.

Thanks! I’ve packed Eleanor Oliphant in my carryon to read on the plane. I’m looking forward to it!

 

[lulu2121]

Your trip sounds AMAZING! Mine is a lot more low key, lol. Aug 30 - Sep 9. I haven't been in several years, but previously when we would go (almost always the first week/10 days of September, we rarely needed FastPass or anything like that. Just wondering if the crowds are higher now this time of year? I recall my daughter sitting on BTTMR and riding it as many times in a row as she wanted without even having to get off the ride. I am hoping that the crowds are still "VERY LOW" this time of year!

lol. I struggled with planning because I wanted to make sure we had enough downtime and weren’t running constantly. I feel like September still has lower crowds than most other times, but I think it’s a lot busier than it used to be. I hope you have a great time!

 

[kclark9830]

How exciting! I hope you are having a great time on your "early" trip. I'm enjoying your plans for September. A 2-week trip would be a dream .

 

[lulu2121]

How exciting! I hope you are having a great time on your "early" trip. I'm enjoying your plans for September. A 2-week trip would be a dream .

Thank you!

 

[lulu2121]

Oh my goodness! The May trip has come and gone, and we had a great time! I plan to do a trip report for it, so look for and check it out in the next couple of days if you're interested. Though it was nowhere near our first rodeo, I think we learned some lessons that we will apply to our September trip, and it will probably result in changes to our plans. Most importantly, we don't enjoy running in the parks all day any longer. We knew this, but I think the APs gave us the opportunity to do as much as we wanted and didn't limit us by the number of days or by not having the ability to park hop. And we didn't really take advantage of either of those things. We also didn't feel the need to squeeze it all in as we know we have three more trips coming up!

More to come soon about the September plans!

113 more days to go!

 

[lulu2121]

We are down to double digits!

I arranged for transportation to and from airport. I opted for Tiffany Towncar for this trip. It was $190 roundtrip from MCO to the resort and back (plus gratuity) for a town car. We used them on one previous trip and had great service. We used Mears Connect on the May trip, and while it was perfectly sufficient, we were picked up 3 hours and 50 minutes prior to our flight time on departure day. I could see this if we picked up at another resort before heading to the airport, but we didn’t! We left the resort and went straight to the airport. I was looking to avoid something similar in September. Our pickup is scheduled for 8:15 a.m. - 2.5 hours prior to departure which is much more reasonable.

Also, baggage claim was chaotic in May at MCO, and I like the idea of not needing to schlep ourselves and all our stuff back across terminals to get to Mears on arrival day.

I keep fiddling with our September schedule, but since I’ve only covered the first two days so far, you won’t really notice the difference! This is all subject to change, and I’m sure it will.

Here’s a recap of where things stand as of now for the first two days:

Day 1 – Thursday, 9/5 – DOUG’S BIRTHDAY! We were originally planning to go to Epcot and have Doug’s birthday dinner at Space 220. We’ve nixed that idea in favor of an afternoon by the pool with dinner that night at California Grill.

Day 2 – Friday, 9/6 – Plans are staying the same. We will rope drop Magic Kingdom and then hit Geyser Point at Wilderness Lodge for lunch.

Continuing with the remainder of the trip . . .

Day 3 – Saturday, 9/7 – Pool day with dinner at Boma

Day 4 – Sunday, 9/8 – Rope drop Animal Kingdom, lunch at either Nomad’s Lounge or Yak & Yeti; head to DHS late in the afternoon for dinner at 50s Prime Time and watch Fantasmic!

Day 5 – Monday, 9/9 – Pool in the morning / head to Epcot between 4-5. I think I am going to try for a Space 220 Lounge ADR. We’ll stay for extra evening hours.

Day 6 - Tuesday, 9/10 – Breakfast at Boma / pool day / bus to Disney Springs around 5 to shop / walk over to SSR for dinner at the Turf Club

Day 7 – Wednesday, 9/11 – Magic Kingdom with EEH

Day 8 – Thursday, 9/12 – Pool day with late dinner at Steakhouse 71

Day 9 – Friday, 9/13 – Rope drop MK / late dinner at Boma

Day 10 – Saturday, 9/14 – Pool day / go to AK just for dinner at Yak & Yeti

Day 11 – Sunday, 9/15 – Breakfast at Boma / pool day

Day 12 – Monday, 9/16 – Rope drop DHS / lunch at Hollywood Brown Derby / Epcot for EEH

Day 13 – Tuesday, 9/17 – Pool day / dinner at Sanaa

Day 14 – Wednesday, 9/18 – Pool / head to Geyser Point to eat an early dinner around 4:00 / MK for EEH

Day 15 – Thursday, 9/19 – Pool / evening in Epcot to eat around F&W booths

Day 16 – Friday, 9/20 – Breakfast at Boma / pool / late dinner at Summer House on the Lake at Disney Springs

Day 17 – Saturday, 9/21 – MY BIRTHDAY – MK / breakfast at Crystal Palace / Dinner at Jiko

Day 18 – Sunday, 9/22 – 8:15 a.m. pick up for airport / flight departs MCO at 10:45 and arrives back in Louisville at 12:45 pm.

99 more days to go!

 

[lulu2121]

So it’s that time of year when everyone from your coworkers to your hairdresser is asking what your summer plans are and if you have any vacations coming up. Most people that know me well are pretty good about not rolling their eyes, but I still get the “you’re going to Disney again?” comments fairly often. With some people, I skirt it and just say Florida. It’s easier. I don’t drink the Kool Aid on many things, but I am a sucker for WDW. It’s not a single, definable thing for me. It’s the culmination of the planning, the anticipation, the nostalgia, the customer service, the immersion, the absolute escape, the lightheartedness, the ease, and the moments of joy and delight experienced over the last four decades that keep me coming back. It’s hard to put into words for those who don’t get it.

You guys get it.

It was my first ride on BTMRR when I was 10 and giggling the whole time in sheer delight with my brother. It was when CMs made magic for a couple of desperate looking teenagers with a 6-week-old baby and no ADR at Cinderella’s Royal Table by seating them anyway immediately. It was the time when my younger DD was 5 and danced herself silly at Biergarten like she felt the spirit of all her German ancestors. It was both girls doing BBB for the older one’s 13th birthday, and her still feeling the magic though she’d just become a teenager. It was planning our trip in 2013 that kept me sane and gave me hope during that most difficult of years. It was riding IASW on the last boat of the night at 2 am with no one else in sight which is both eerie and wonderous at the same time. It’s the other guests on a crowded bus who willing helped a granny travelling alone with a two-year-old and a stroller on a trip to one of the parks. It’s the familiar faces of the CMs who’ve worked there for years and you see each trip. It’s enjoying the stranger next to you’s laughter and fun during their first ride on Flight of Passage. It’s the way you can’t help yourself from smiling and waving back at all the CMS on Main Street first thing in the morning. It was settling in for a long evening at Tambu Lounge and chatting with other guests during a monsoon rainstorm. It is the joy my heart feels every time I watch Tinkerbell fly from the castle even though I’ve known exactly how that works since my first very first trip.

That all sounds so flat on paper. But moments like those happen on every trip, and it’s funny that some of my favorite experiences are from quite ordinary things.

77 more days to go!

 

[lulu2121]

I hope everyone had a happy Fourth of July! Doug and I took a short 2-night trip to a bed and breakfast in Bloomington, Indiana. It was a perfect little getaway with lots of great food and drink and a little shopping too! I highly recommend the Showers Inn if you ever stay in Bloomington. It was everything we wanted in a B&B – charming house, rooms, grounds, staff, and a tasty cooked breakfast.

Our First ADR Day!

We have two separate DVC reservations, though they are both for a standard studio at Jambo House and linked so we won’t have to change rooms. But that still means it is a split stay as far as ADRs go. Today is our first 60 day mark. I made ADRs for the first four days of our trip, 9/5-9/8. Here’s what I have so far:

9/5 – 9:10 pm dinner at California Grill for Doug’s birthday. I’d like this to be a little earlier, in the 7:30 to 8:30 range, but 9:10 will be fine if I can’t move it. I think fireworks will likely be at 9:00 that night. I’m not sure how they handle that. Will they let us up to watch the fireworks and then seat us?

9/6 – no ADRs.

9/7 – 8:10 pm dinner at Boma.

9/8 – 10:45 or 12:45 lunch at Yak & Yeti. I will let one of these go shortly. I just need to decide what will work best. I’ll probably choose the 12:45. We also have a 6:30 pm dinner at 50s Prime Time.

I was excited about the announcement about Lightning Lane Multi Pass replacing Genie+. I miss Fastpass+, and I like the idea of booking in advance but am curious about all of the still unknowns. Like price. It is good that you can actually pick times and rides prior to purchasing so at least you now what you’re getting. I’m glad there is a month from the time LL Multi Pass (are we calling it LLMP?) begins until the time I need to purchase it so I can see how it’s working out and what the kinks are.

Our second ADR day is Wednesday so I’ll be back then with more updates!

60 more days to go!