intricatejewel
And, uh.... fly!
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2006
- Messages
- 229
Pre Trip Report
Hey there! My name’s Julie and I’m a CT technologist by night, avid Disney fan by day. When I’m not radiating people, I enjoy spending time with my sassy 6 year old husky (Juneau) and very sweet 16 year old cat (Sasha). I’m at the age where given the option to dress up and go out with my friends or spending the night in my pj’s on the couch with my animals, I’m gonna choose the latter. Currently, my favorite park is Animal Kingdom, especially at night. I’m looking at you Pandora. I love planning my vacations nearly as much as I love going on them. I’m a little less than 2 weeks away from my vacation and it’s been a struggle not to start packing now, though I have put things to the side that I know I’ll need. But I’m getting antsy...
I have friends who live nearby that take care of my pets for me when I’m away. In fact, our friendship began at a dog park. Both of our huskies instantaneously became the best of friends and 6 years later, they’re still BFF’s. So whenever I have to leave town, I know my fur-babies are in excellent hands.
I have to admit, in some aspects of my life I have been very fortunate. Before working in healthcare, I used to work in a bank and with my birthday being close to Columbus Day, I never had to work on my actual birthday due to the holiday. Obviously that all changed when I switched careers, so I decided last year 2018 that I would work my birthday and it’d be fine. I can adult just like everyone else. I work in a Level One trauma center and some nights can be just awful. In addition to that, our ER is insanely busy and we see all kinds of patients. I’m sure you can see where this big ball of foreshadowing is heading. On my birthday, it ended up being an insanely busy night with traumas. I was physically assaulted by a patient who was out of his mind on drugs and I spent the following two weeks with an ugly shiner on my face. I had to get myself checked out by the ER (besides the bruises, I was absolutely fine), had to file a police report (it’s mandatory when a healthcare worker gets assaulted) and spent months going back and forth with the billing department to get it covered under workman’s comp. Needless to say, I’m going to make it my lifelong mission to never work on my birthday again.
Which brings us to this trip! As I was sitting in the ER getting my faced checked out, I decided I’m going to do it up right for the next birthday!
10/5-10/11 Disney World!
10/11-10/14 Disney cruise to the Bahamas (my birthday will be at Castaway Cay <3
10/14-10/19 Universal Studios/ IoA/ HHN
10/19-10/20 Add on day for DAH at Animal Kingdom
I have a couple friends joining up with me for a few days, but it’s mostly going to be a solo trip. I LOVE solo trips!! I took the plunge and traveled to Italy by myself a few years back and had the most amazing time! I now make it a point to go on a solo trip once a year, if I can manage. I have a trip planned with a friend right around Thanksgiving this year for a Bahamas cruise on NCL to celebrate her birthday. She’s in desperate need of a vacation and I can’t wait to show her the few surprises I secretly planned to make it extra special.
I’ll be staying at Pop Century for the Disney portion of my trip. I am very much looking forward to riding the new Skyliners. I’ll report back what I think of them. Oh yes, I purchased the Quick Service DDP out of pocket for the ease of budgeting and knowing I’ll more than get my money’s worth between Food and Wine and dining in Galaxy’s Edge.
I’ll be using DCL transportation to get to the port as I’ve never had any issues using it and it’s cheaper, as a solo. I squeezed in this three day cruise specifically because on my actual birthdate, the ship will be at Castaway Cay. I will be slightly bummed if it doesn’t happen due to the storms/hurricanes, but it certainly wouldn’t ruin my trip. Disney does a great job of taking care of its passengers in the event of an itinerary change and I know I’ll have an amazing time, regardless.
After the cruise, I’ll be staying at Royal Pacific Resort Club Level. I’ve only ever stayed at this resort for one or two night stays and loved it. I didn’t love that CL was the only available option to book, but ultimately, I’m glad to have it and look forward to the extra amenities. I haven’t been to HHN since 1996 and I have two nights I plan on attending with the help of their BOGO promotion. A month ago, I was debating purchasing HHN EP for both nights $$$$, but a bottle of wine later, and I woke up the next morning with express passes for both nights. A lamp showed up on my doorstep a couple days later. Apparently, I did more drunk internet shopping that night. Oy.
So because of the extremely late nights at HHN, I extended my trip a day to leave on Sunday, rather than Saturday. 1 point goes to Southwest for being able to change my dates around at no extra expense. The plan is to sleep in a bit on Saturday, check out at 11am from RPR, Uber/Lyft to Pop Century and spend another late night at the Animal Kingdom After Hours event. I’m holding off purchasing until I can get a good understanding of what the forecast will be that night. My last DAH event, it was a torrential downpour the entire evening and took away from the experience. I’m hoping for a drier night.
Despite being a huge Star Wars fan, when they announced the opening dates of Galaxy’s Edge, I had planned on skipping it altogether to avoid the crowds. I was envisioning rope drop crowd levels heading into SDD. Never again! But then the internet happened, I went down the YouTube rabbit hole and watched all those amazing Star Wars Land vlogs from across the coast and I was smitten. Crowds haven’t been anywhere near what was predicted on either coast, though I anticipate October getting busier barring any more hurricanes. I have actively read EVERY post on the Star Wars Galaxy Edge sticky here on the Disboards and have a good idea what to expect. I’m actively trying not to watch any videos to avoid spoiling the experience for me and I haven’t been this level of excited for Disney in a long time. I snagged a few Oga’s Cantina reservations, along with a Droid Depot and Savi’s, and I’m restlessly counting down the days.
I have a few must buy souvenirs: custom-made droid, a Rebel personality chip, Savi’s lightsaber, droid backpack, Batuuan Spira metal gift card, Yub Nub mug and an interactive wand at Universal Studios. I’ve never had so many things on a souvenir list before, but... yeah, no buts. It’s vacation! I had been reading everywhere on the internet that the droid backpacks were selling out on both coasts, so to eliminate my anxiety, I pre-purchased one off of eBay and it arrived yesterday. The backpacks are cute, but aren’t very functional beyond hauling your droid around Galaxy’s Edge in case anyone was curious.
Another first for me, will be flying Southwest Airlines. Since they’ve expanded their services across the country, I can now get a direct flight out of Cleveland to Orlando. Their boarding service seems a bit odd to me, but I’ve heard mostly good things about SW and I’m looking forward to trying it out. Plus, a friend scored me a couple of complimentary beverage coupons for my flights. My flight departs at stupid o’clock, so I’m not sure if I’ll really be wanting an adult beverage that early. Let’s be honest, yes I will!! 12 days till vacation!
Hey there! My name’s Julie and I’m a CT technologist by night, avid Disney fan by day. When I’m not radiating people, I enjoy spending time with my sassy 6 year old husky (Juneau) and very sweet 16 year old cat (Sasha). I’m at the age where given the option to dress up and go out with my friends or spending the night in my pj’s on the couch with my animals, I’m gonna choose the latter. Currently, my favorite park is Animal Kingdom, especially at night. I’m looking at you Pandora. I love planning my vacations nearly as much as I love going on them. I’m a little less than 2 weeks away from my vacation and it’s been a struggle not to start packing now, though I have put things to the side that I know I’ll need. But I’m getting antsy...
I have friends who live nearby that take care of my pets for me when I’m away. In fact, our friendship began at a dog park. Both of our huskies instantaneously became the best of friends and 6 years later, they’re still BFF’s. So whenever I have to leave town, I know my fur-babies are in excellent hands.
I have to admit, in some aspects of my life I have been very fortunate. Before working in healthcare, I used to work in a bank and with my birthday being close to Columbus Day, I never had to work on my actual birthday due to the holiday. Obviously that all changed when I switched careers, so I decided last year 2018 that I would work my birthday and it’d be fine. I can adult just like everyone else. I work in a Level One trauma center and some nights can be just awful. In addition to that, our ER is insanely busy and we see all kinds of patients. I’m sure you can see where this big ball of foreshadowing is heading. On my birthday, it ended up being an insanely busy night with traumas. I was physically assaulted by a patient who was out of his mind on drugs and I spent the following two weeks with an ugly shiner on my face. I had to get myself checked out by the ER (besides the bruises, I was absolutely fine), had to file a police report (it’s mandatory when a healthcare worker gets assaulted) and spent months going back and forth with the billing department to get it covered under workman’s comp. Needless to say, I’m going to make it my lifelong mission to never work on my birthday again.
Which brings us to this trip! As I was sitting in the ER getting my faced checked out, I decided I’m going to do it up right for the next birthday!
10/5-10/11 Disney World!
10/11-10/14 Disney cruise to the Bahamas (my birthday will be at Castaway Cay <3
10/14-10/19 Universal Studios/ IoA/ HHN
10/19-10/20 Add on day for DAH at Animal Kingdom
I have a couple friends joining up with me for a few days, but it’s mostly going to be a solo trip. I LOVE solo trips!! I took the plunge and traveled to Italy by myself a few years back and had the most amazing time! I now make it a point to go on a solo trip once a year, if I can manage. I have a trip planned with a friend right around Thanksgiving this year for a Bahamas cruise on NCL to celebrate her birthday. She’s in desperate need of a vacation and I can’t wait to show her the few surprises I secretly planned to make it extra special.
I’ll be staying at Pop Century for the Disney portion of my trip. I am very much looking forward to riding the new Skyliners. I’ll report back what I think of them. Oh yes, I purchased the Quick Service DDP out of pocket for the ease of budgeting and knowing I’ll more than get my money’s worth between Food and Wine and dining in Galaxy’s Edge.
I’ll be using DCL transportation to get to the port as I’ve never had any issues using it and it’s cheaper, as a solo. I squeezed in this three day cruise specifically because on my actual birthdate, the ship will be at Castaway Cay. I will be slightly bummed if it doesn’t happen due to the storms/hurricanes, but it certainly wouldn’t ruin my trip. Disney does a great job of taking care of its passengers in the event of an itinerary change and I know I’ll have an amazing time, regardless.
After the cruise, I’ll be staying at Royal Pacific Resort Club Level. I’ve only ever stayed at this resort for one or two night stays and loved it. I didn’t love that CL was the only available option to book, but ultimately, I’m glad to have it and look forward to the extra amenities. I haven’t been to HHN since 1996 and I have two nights I plan on attending with the help of their BOGO promotion. A month ago, I was debating purchasing HHN EP for both nights $$$$, but a bottle of wine later, and I woke up the next morning with express passes for both nights. A lamp showed up on my doorstep a couple days later. Apparently, I did more drunk internet shopping that night. Oy.
So because of the extremely late nights at HHN, I extended my trip a day to leave on Sunday, rather than Saturday. 1 point goes to Southwest for being able to change my dates around at no extra expense. The plan is to sleep in a bit on Saturday, check out at 11am from RPR, Uber/Lyft to Pop Century and spend another late night at the Animal Kingdom After Hours event. I’m holding off purchasing until I can get a good understanding of what the forecast will be that night. My last DAH event, it was a torrential downpour the entire evening and took away from the experience. I’m hoping for a drier night.
Despite being a huge Star Wars fan, when they announced the opening dates of Galaxy’s Edge, I had planned on skipping it altogether to avoid the crowds. I was envisioning rope drop crowd levels heading into SDD. Never again! But then the internet happened, I went down the YouTube rabbit hole and watched all those amazing Star Wars Land vlogs from across the coast and I was smitten. Crowds haven’t been anywhere near what was predicted on either coast, though I anticipate October getting busier barring any more hurricanes. I have actively read EVERY post on the Star Wars Galaxy Edge sticky here on the Disboards and have a good idea what to expect. I’m actively trying not to watch any videos to avoid spoiling the experience for me and I haven’t been this level of excited for Disney in a long time. I snagged a few Oga’s Cantina reservations, along with a Droid Depot and Savi’s, and I’m restlessly counting down the days.
I have a few must buy souvenirs: custom-made droid, a Rebel personality chip, Savi’s lightsaber, droid backpack, Batuuan Spira metal gift card, Yub Nub mug and an interactive wand at Universal Studios. I’ve never had so many things on a souvenir list before, but... yeah, no buts. It’s vacation! I had been reading everywhere on the internet that the droid backpacks were selling out on both coasts, so to eliminate my anxiety, I pre-purchased one off of eBay and it arrived yesterday. The backpacks are cute, but aren’t very functional beyond hauling your droid around Galaxy’s Edge in case anyone was curious.
Another first for me, will be flying Southwest Airlines. Since they’ve expanded their services across the country, I can now get a direct flight out of Cleveland to Orlando. Their boarding service seems a bit odd to me, but I’ve heard mostly good things about SW and I’m looking forward to trying it out. Plus, a friend scored me a couple of complimentary beverage coupons for my flights. My flight departs at stupid o’clock, so I’m not sure if I’ll really be wanting an adult beverage that early. Let’s be honest, yes I will!! 12 days till vacation!
