The one with the dusty, wrinkly, moldy-oldy 4 day park hopper ticket from 1992! August 2025 Trip Report

[MamaMouse0920]

Welcome foolish mortals..................................... there's no turning back now!

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I'm back again with another trip report, and can't wait to get started! This trip was seriously one of the best we've had, and we are DYING to go back. Matt thinks we'll squeeze in another trip this year, but I'm thinking most realistically we won't be back for another year We shall see!! Regardless, I'm deep in the Disney Blues so lets hop right in so I can re-live the magic!

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First up, introductions. If you haven't read my previous trip reports (Sept 2022; Feb 2023; Sept 2023; Feb 2024; Aug 2024) I'll give you a quick run down of our crazy crew! We live in a suburb of the Twin Cities in lovely Minnesota. Let's start with the oldest, shall we?

This handsome fella turns 43 tomorrow (!!), my sweet husband Matt.

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He is the ultimate 'dad' - the best stroller pusher, broken toy fixer, owie kisser, Skyliner-stinky-fart-dutchoven-maker (does that not just scream 'dad'???) and absolutely dotes on his family. We love him! He works on the administrative side of healthcare (at the VA hospital) and loves serving our nations veterans!

Up next, and considerably younger - me!

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My name is Bethany & I'm still in my 30s I too work on the administrative side of the VA and love my job! I love coffee, crafting, planning/hosting events and spending time with my family! Matt and I both love craft beer (hazy IPAs are our fav!) and exploring new restaurants/breweries around the Twin Cities.

Then we have our two babies (who aren't really babies anymore - starting Kindergarten and 1st Grade next week!) DD6 and DS5.

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DD6 (will be 7 in 2 months!) is my mini (as I'm sure you'll notice as I post pictures throughout the TR) in both looks and personality. She is a perfectionist (we're working on taming that a bit) and gives big 'eldest sister' vibes. She is a mini mama and inserts herself into things whether we like it or not but loves her little brother more than anything! She is crazy smart and we can't wait to see how she soars in first grade!!

DS5 is 100% B O Y and keeps us on our toes! He is a huge mama's boy and a lovey-dovey snuggler. When he's not causing chaos, you can almost always find him near me- snuggled under my armpit or playing with my hair etc. Not sure if this is a boy thing or a 2nd kid thing or just a DS5 thing but I'll take it for as long as I can cause I know the years are short! As I mentioned he starts kindergarten next week so this trip was a bit of a 'send off' for him, similar to how we did for DS7 last year right before she started school. Fair is fair, amiright?!

I guess I went a tad out of order if we're going by age, but not to be forgotten who joined us for a little over half of our trip is my amazing mama, who we'll call Grandma!

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Grandma is in her 50s and needs a knee replacement (she had one done last year and I think is procrastinating getting the other one replaced - though after this trip she may be changing her tune and perhaps will schedule the surgery sooner rather than later) so rented a scooter this trip which had it's pros & cons, as anyone who has traveled with an ECV can attest to I'm sure. She is the one who used the dusty, wrinkly, moldy-oldy ticket from 1992! See my PTR for more info but basically it's just as it sounds, we found an actual physical paper ticket in the back of my grandma (who lives in Florida)'s closet! It was a 5 day park hopper ticket with one day used, so 4 remaining, from 1992.

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Can you believe it?! It sat on my moms fridge for about a month and I had a heart attack every time I saw it- ha!

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I had called Disney right after finding it and they said that they couldn't do anything (i.e. confirm it's validity and/or convert it to todays version of tickets) via phone and that it would need to be done on property. Slightly anxiety inducing, but since my grandma worked for Delta and my mom is on her Buddy List (flies standby for free) she wasn't technically out anything if she flew there and they were like 'nah, we can't accept this' so well worth the gamble - even though we knew without a doubt that it was legit.

Anyway, that's us! I'll get to the fun stuff in the next post

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Tuesday, August 12th (Pre-Travel)

Matt and I both took the day off, so we spent the day as a family getting things ready. We went on a 4 mile walk (Matt and I generally try to prepare for our trips by taking 2-4 mile walks as frequently as we can throughout the months leading up to the trip) even though it's getting slightly embarrassing pushing the giant DD6 in the stroller! I feel like we get a few side eye lookss from people we pass by (I can almost hear them "isn't she a little old/big to be in a stroller?"), of course them not knowing that 1. it's a 4 mile walk, I'm not sure many 6 year olds could tolerate that 2. we try to go at a decent clip so she definitely wouldn't keep up 3. We're doing it to condition not only our legs but also Matt's core. Pushing 100+ pounds of kids in a 40lb stroller isn't exactly a cake walk!

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After our walk Matt mowed the lawn & the kids played outside. Eventually the kids requested a picnic lunch so we set up shop in the front yard while Matt mowed the backyard.





After lunch the kids wanted to play in the little pool we have set up on our front patio, so they changed into their suits and splashed away!







While they were playing in the pool I scurried off for my usual pre-vacay mani/pedi. By the time I returned, the kids and Matt were having a cul-de-sac baseball game, so I admired my nails and watched them play in the distance





Because this is the way life goes (especially right before a vacation, it seems!), DS5 biffed it at some point in the game, going a** over tea kettle and somehow scraped his spine pretty good- causing a bunch of tears and thus ending the game, us heading inside to put an ice pack on it and snuggle on the couch.

Not wanting any leftovers, I made the kids a "snackies" dinner (carrots, hard boiled eggs, salami, string cheese, yogurt + cheerios, peanuts, clementines, pretzels, leftover Doritos from the cabin, peanut butter/Ritz cracker sandwiches, and pistachios - plus a big bowl of popcorn!) and got them all set up for a living room picnic - one of the their ultimate favorite treats!




After Peter Pan was over, we all showered & went to bed around 8:30pm, with my alarm set for 4:15am! Our flight was at 7am so the plan was to leave our house around 4:45am (my mom would be picking us up, the kids car seats already installed in her mini van). Perks of living only 15 mins from the airport!

We were so excited - the trip was finally here!!!

 

[SEAGULL59]

Following!! Hope you all had a great trip. Sounds like it so far!!

 

[Gamedog]

Always enjoy your TR's and looking forward to this one!

 

[footballmouse]

 

[13littledogs]

Always enjoy your trip reports. Love the missing front tooth picture