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

[MamaMouse0920]

Ugh for some reason I got zero notifications of your guys' comments, what the heck?!

BUT here's what we ended up doing-- we're keeping the 10 days in August as-is (our flights are non-refundable (Basic Economy) so even though Disney would have allowed us to switch the dates, we'd lose $$$ on airfare so that would stink), and my mom agreed to watch the kids so Matt & I get a solo trip!!! It will be Sunday through Thursday, so 3 full days and 2 half days (travel). Not as nice as 7 days for sure but we will be kid-free and honestly we are so excited!

..also, as I type this (and as I write up my TR with our many date-nights) I am realizing it sounds as though we don't love our kids LOL I swear we very much do, but also we understand the importance of prioritizing our marriage in order to foster a home filled with love & set good examples of love-filled, happy marriages for our kids to hopefully follow when they become adults & seek out partners to spend their lives with. I've said it before that we are so fortunate to have my parents & siblings close by and willing to help watch the kids... a kid-free vacation is almost unheard of for most parents so we are BEYOND grateful for the opportunity! Plus it doesn't hurt that our kids will be in great hands, and absolutely love spending time with grandma & grandpa so honestly they will probably not even be THAT sad to miss out on Disney (we haven't told them yet....)

When Matt was growing up (he's an only child, I feel compelled to point out) his parents implemented an 'every other year' vacation rule - one year they'd go on a trip as a family and the next year the parents would go on a couples only/kid free trip.. when we first became parents we said we loved that idea but didn't know the feasibility of it, and incidentally without any effort on actually planning them out it has just sort of happened to work out that way throughout the last 7 years of being parents.

2019: Family trip to Sanibel Island, FL - just DD7 (I was pregnant with DS5)
2020: DS5 was born in the heart of COVID, no trips this year (I imagine that was the case for a lot of people, not just the ones with an 18mo & a newborn LOL)
2021: Matt & I solo trip to Ft Myers Beach (our first trip without the kids)
2022: Family trip (+ extended family) to Las Vegas to celebrate my brothers 21st birthday (don't come for me- the kids actually had a blast in Vegas and obviously we only did kid-friendly activities!) + WDW in September + Matt & I solo trip to Washington DC where Matt attended a work conference --> lots of trips this year!
2023: Family trip to Ft Myers Beach + WDW in September
2024: Matt & I solo trip to WDW for conference in February; Family (+ extended family) trip on a cruise; + WDW in August
2025: Family trip to WDW in August

So yes, we consider ourselves extremely fortunate and are SUPER excited for February!! 82 days!!!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

I say you & Matt GO!!

Your answer wins!

I also really like the more relaxed trip and not going to the parks as much.

100%, like I said we ALWAYS say "we need more rest days to explore etc." and then never end up doing them so I honestly would consider doing an entirely park-free trip one of these days!

plus we did a split stay so we could get 2 free water park days

OMG this is genius!!!

The kids didn't complain about not going into the parks one time.

1,000%!!!! When we went on a cruise that left out of Orlando we had a lengthy chunk of time between getting off the cruise ship & needing to be at the airport so we hung around Disney (went to Disney Springs, took the monorail around the monorail resorts etc.) and honestly it was hardest for me, ha! I hated being so close and yet so far away... it was a bit like dangling the carrot in front of me and then taking it away! But the kids I think would have no problems! They're content to just be in the bubble.

Your family does incredibly well at WDW and the kids are old enough to KNOW you left them behind.

Oh for sure, after we decided on this solo trip I tested the waters a bit at dinner that night...

me: "would you guys be sad if mom & dad went to Disney World without you guys, if it meant you got to spend the week with Grandma?"
DS5 & DD7 simultaneously: "yeah we'd be sad you went without us"
me: "really? you wouldn't be excited to stay with grandma for that many days in a row?"
DS5: "well, yeah okay I would be okay with it!"

..so we decided we'd make let grandma be the one to tell them, so she can be the bad guy (or good guy, depending on how they take the news when it's real life & not just a hypothetical Hopefully it helps that we have the August trip on the horizon, though!

Theme park hours are shorter in February and I don’t know how long your conference days will be. You will have to judge whether that makes a difference.

Ooooh good point about the shorter hours, I didn't think about that!!! I will be done around noon each day, and the conference offers discounted 'after 1pm admittance' tickets so that's likely what we'll do for a day or two!

Just know going into it though that February has several weeks that are very busy especially compared to when you went over the summer

Oh for sure - when we've gone to this conference in years past I've been surprised with how busy it's been!! I think Presidents Day & Mardi Gras can sometimes coincide - plus FARTS & the Princess Marathon sometimes overlap with the conference dates too! Thankfully this trip the marathon starts the day AFTER we leave to go home so hopefully won't see those crowds!

Also it can get too cold to swim in February so going back for swim breaks may not be an option to avoid crowds.

I will 100000% be bringing more sweatshirts this trip - I remember my teeth chattering some mornings & nights!!

...and I also remember getting sunburned in the middle of the day, so suffice it to say FL weather is weird

 

[WWhitehead]

I'm glad you guys are getting an adults only trip. I absolutely adore my kids and loved every vacation that we took with them, and they still travel with us at 19 and 22. Both have said that they are glad that we went on adults trips sometimes, and they plan to do that when they are married one day (I guess I will be the babysitter - haha). They loved having grandparents stay with them (especially my mom and dad who both passed away several years ago) and some of the babysitting swaps we did with close friends. It sounds like you are striking a good balance of travel in your family. I hope you have the best time! My 22 year-old daughter and I are booked for a Wednesday-Sunday stay in late April, and I am so excited. I'll definitely be looking forward to your trip report for ideas.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Wednesday, August 20th (Day 8)

The plan for this day was to rope drop DHS (we had LLMP) and after a quick rest at the hotel head to Epcot where we'd meet Miss Maya for our last pre-planned nanny visit. We woke up at our usual 6am and quickly got ready, choosing a breakfast of champions made up of last night's other Amorette's treat - a cookie dough croissant.



After a few seconds in the microwave, thankfully this thing was MUCH tastier than the Goofy Dome we had the night before and the 4 of us quickly enjoyed the shared treat. I also grabbed a few of our healthier breakfast offerings for the kids to eat while we waited for the Skyliner (a yogurt pouch, an orange & a banana). Matt and I did our usual divide & conquer so I could fill our coffee mug once Landscape of Flavors opened at 7am.

By 7:05 I was reunited with the other 3, who were 2nd in line on the AoA side.







And by 7:35 we were flying over Hourglass Lake!





It's kind of funny to think how despite staying at a Skyliner resort, being one of the first ones in line and on the Skyliner itself, plus my fast paced walk, we still end up with this view when we find our place in line at DHS:



I'm not saying that's bad at all (that's only, what 30-40 people in front of us?) but I guess just goes to show how much better off you are either A) staying at CBR or B) taking a Minnie Van. I have a hard time believing a bus or your own personal vehicle would get you there faster than the Skyliner, so my best guess is that those people either don't have kids/strollers to slow you down or are taking a Minnie Van or staying at CBR.

Anyway, timestamp above shows 7:59 and my notes say they let us in early at 7:59 so I guess I snapped that picture and we immediately were let in! EE wasn't until 8:30am this morning, so they let us in the park a full 30 minutes early. Woohoo!

We were in line for Rise by 8:06.



Unfortunately as we wove through the queue, it seemed that literally everyone on any side of us was hacking those disgusting wet/loose coughs, so Matt and I were like this during the 10ish minute wait:

Also during the wait, DD7 developed the hiccups. I pulled my old standby trick to get rid of them:

"DD7 if you hiccup again, I will buy you a Mickey Bar as soon as we get off this ride"

..which of course worked like a charm and she didn't have any additional hiccups!

It's only backfired/not worked on me once so I'll take those odds any day





We had a blast (I can't believe how much more I enjoy this ride now that we are more into Star Wars - I had ridden it before seeing any of the movies and was just kind of 'meh' about it--- but now that we're Star Wars nerds, I love it!) as usual & were off the ride by 8:35am, so only 5 minutes into EE. Sweeeeeeeeet!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Not even hesitating to see if Slinky Dog Dash was worth getting in line for, we instead made our way to Sunset Blvd for a favorite - Tower of Terror!



Which we had a LL for at 1100 so we would be riding this one 2x this day, woohoo!



Sadly, we never watched Fantasmic this trip either (we'd missed it last trip as well)- though I do love the show and would love to have gotten to watch it again, I guess it just didn't work out this trip. I think partially that's because DHS is not a super great park to be in in the evening? The shows are all done for the day, the handful of remaining rides have astronomically long waits (or are down altogether like a couple nights before), and LLs are typically long sold out. Also, I'd be remiss to say probably a small part of Matt's brain remembers the kerfuffle he had with another guest all those years ago (3? Was that really 3 years ago?!) in the queue for Fantasmic- so probably a small factor as well why we haven't exactly made it a priority! Maybe next trip.

Anyway, we joined the queue at 8:44am and were next in line for the elevator by 8:54, which I'd classify as a walk on since some of that time is eaten up by the pre-show!









3 of the 4 of us had a great ride, but for whatever reason DS5 decided he no longer liked this one . Say what?! Perhaps this sequence had more downs than ups or something? Regardless he didn't enjoy it but I kept our 11am LL in the hopes that he would come to his senses in the next 2 hours

Our first LL was for Toy Story Mania at 9am, so we made our way to Andy's backyard next!



By 9:15, we were next to board & betting on which car we were going to get (Mr. Potato Head? Ham? Woody?). DD7 guessed it right so was excited





Matt & DS5's scores:

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Vs. mine & DD7's scores:




The other 3 members of my family sure do much better in accuracy than I do, I'm really impressed by Matt's 41%!!!





After boasting my 'best in vehicle' score to Matt, we headed to Woody's Lunchbox where I had placed a mobile order some time ago for breakfast. We were somehow able to snipe out a table & were seated for our late breakfast by 9:40am.



We ate kind of quickly since we had a LL to scan into for Slinky Dog Dash (I can't remember what I had booked after scanning into TSM.. perhaps Mickey & Minnie's? Unsure, but either way by 9:57 we were scurrying to scan into Slinky!



This time I was paired with DS5:





I love how both Matt & DD7 Mike Wazowski'd themselves

We must have had some time to kill between SDD and our next LL (which I do think was Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, maybe for 10:55ish?) so Matt & I once again split up in the search for more coffee - this time him heading to Trolley Car Cafe and me taking the kids into Animation Courtyard to meet some characters.







I can't remember what Daisy was gesturing/referencing in this picture but I want to say it's Buzz's Spanish mode????? Who knows!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

And after Daisy we went and met Max! There were other characters in the area (Chip & Dale, Pluto, etc.) but we'd met them before so decided to focus on the two new (to us) characters.









After Matt had procured the coffee & the characters had been met, we still had time to kill so we made our way to Sunset Blvd again for our next breakfast - Mickey waffles & mimosas! Matt and I had seriously slacked somehow on the adult meal credits and still had an obcene number of them left so Mimosa's were definitely in order



It didn't take us long to enjoy those 6 waffles & couple strips of bacon, so before long we were in line for Mickey & Minnie's!





After MMRR, we made our way back down Sunset to ride our LL for Tower - thankfully DS6 had come to his senses and was once again excited to ride. Whew! I think judging by our faces, this one was a much more enjoyable sequence!!



We were off this one by 11:30 and DD7 was begggggggging to ride Rock N Rollercoaster (her poor weepy brother is always so sad to miss out, so Matt had to promise him a treat to look forward to while the girls were gone) so we split up and went our separate ways.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

The stark contrast between DD7's face and the guy directly behind her has me dying

It was 11:50 by the time we were off Rock'n (I don't have a ride photo of Matt + DD7 on this one.. so not sure if the photo just got lost or if he opted not to ride? I know we've both gotten headaches in the past from this one so it's very possible he respectfully declined and we just made DD7 deal with not getting to ride 2x ) and we decided to hurry to see if we could catch the 12pm show for Indiana Jones. Remembering something Rob from Ear Scouts had said, we grabbed seats on the left side of the theater for a better view:







At some point in the show I had asked Matt to check on what the weather was looking like since we were past noon & he took this screenshot which just makes me chuckle hahaha



Being from Minnesota hurricanes aren't exactly something I'm used to seeing on a radar, let alone so close to us!! Thankfully Erin didn't end up impacting Orlando (or Florida at all, if I'm remembering correctly) but of course leading up to the trip I was a tad worried we'd have a repeat of Ian from 2022. Anyway, the sight made me chuckle so I had Matt take that screenshot.



After the show ended, we decided a visit to Gertie was in order, so the kids each got a yummy cone of soft-serve using our snack credits.



Which we took 'to go' into Baseline Tap House so Matt & I could grab something to cool down with, ourselves!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

After the kids had eaten their cones, DS5 and Matt took a quick potty break while DD7 and I sat outside & figured out our next attraction (we decided on Star Tours since it was nearby) while I finished my beer & waited for the boys.



Soon enough, we were ready, agreeing this would be our last attraction of the park because the kids were begging to go back for a swim (apparently naps are a thing of the past, ugh!)











We hoped we'd be picked as the Rebel Spy, but no luck. We did however get a new-to-us show, one with Darth Vader himself! So that was a nice treat.



Timestamp on the photo above is 1:27 and my next picture is Matt pushing the stroller through AoA at 2:10, so I guess it took a chunk of time to get from DHS > Skyliner > AoA!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

By 2:45 however we were all changed into our suits and sunscreened up, complete with electrolyte drinks (we prefer DripDrop over the more popular LiquidIV brand) to ensure none of us were getting dehydrated in this August heat (and an apple to wash it all down, as I can see from DS5's lap!)















We swam until 4pm when we had the kids get out & change since we had scheduled Miss Maya for 5pm. It looked like storms were brewing so we hoped that we could get on before the lightning closed it down!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Thankfully it was just rain (no lightning) & by the time we did the transfer over at CBR the rain had slowed and the clouds had parted, making way for the sun- however after entering our second gondola we were greeted with a different kind of cloud......... one DS5 was not too pleased to have to endure:



Remember my description of Matt as the best Skyliner-stinky-fart-dutchoven-maker? It's true. I can almost guarantee his mouth is forming the words "Oh it's not that bad" (something the three other occupants in this gondola would vehemently disagree with).

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Thankful to get out of that fart cloud, we gasped for fresh air as we entered Epcot to meet Miss Maya and part ways for the next couple hours.





We had a 5:05pm LLSP for Guardians for just Matt & I, so that was where we were headed!



The kids I guess had convinced Miss Maya they were ravenous and stopped in France for some more of those delicious ham & cheese croissant's DS5 had devoured a couple days prior:



And some treats too, apparently!



Though DD7 later told me she didn't care for the macaron.



According to my notes, we had scanned in to Guardians a tad late at 5:24 and were on the ride at 5:40, so not terrible!



Unfortunately I didn't write down what song we got, waaaaaah! I suck.

After Guardians, we stopped at a PhotoPass CM for a couple of pictures:

 

[MamaMouse0920]

It was during or immediately after these smoochy kisses that I hear "HEY MAMAAAAAAAA!" which I somehow initially tuned out or didn't recognize the sound of his voice, until finally it hit me that it was DS5 shouting that from across the walkway, ha!!! We had a good laugh about that and quick gave them hugs & kisses while they made their way out of the World Showcase and Matt and I went in. We were feeling hungry so decided dinner in Mexico was in order!





We loved the view, but my oh my was that 6pm sun brighttttttt and hot. I was directly in the sun (it was on Matt's back so we both had it bad) and I could feel the beads of sweat forming on my forehead/brow line and slowly dripping down my face- ha! After eating our nachos & drinking our shared beer, we quickly skedaddled out of there!



We walked around the little shopping area inside Mexico for a while while we finished our drink, once we had we joined the line for Gran Fiesta. Almost immediately after joining the queue (I think the wait time was 15 minutes?) I remembered we had a LL for Soarin' that was about to expire so we left the line & made our way that way instead.

Meanwhile, the kids were enjoying the aquarium with Miss Maya --

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Soarin' was amazing as usual, we had on either side of us a group that had never ridden so that is always super cute to witness.

After Soarin' we joined the standby line for Livin' with the Land, where we got the very last row which was new to us.



After leaving the Land Pavilion, we made our way back into the World Showcase just sort of moseying around. We eventually made our way into China and waited for the next Reflections of China show to start, which was new for both of us. It was while we were waiting that I received the news that my good friend's husband, who had been missing for 2+ weeks after hiking in the Bighorn Mountains in WY, his search had been called off and went from a search and rescue to a search and recovery. Being missing for so long none of us really had a ton of hope that he was to be found alive but still, getting that news absolutely gutted me and I cried silently in that little waiting area. I sent her a quick message sending her so much love and hugged Matt, feeling so grateful he was with me, trying hard not to imagine if that were him. (note, his body was found 8 days later Not at all the news we'd been hoping for but at the very least she & their two young kids have some closure).

Anyway, Reflections of China was super interesting and I welcomed the distraction from what was going on back home but it made me slightly dizzy- I wanted to see everything that was going on, all 360 degrees! Eventually I decided to just look straight ahead and not care about what I may be missing behind me- it wasn't worth the risk of toppling over Around that same time (7:45ish) the kids were eating their second dinners in Connections:





While Matt & I continued to explore more of China.



We must have had a Frozen LL for 8:00pm or thereabouts, as that was where we went next:



We perused Morocco (a country we typically tend to just walk by) and decided to stop for a treat at Oasis Sweets & Sips. We looked at the menu & were debating over which pastry to get until we realized the size of the pastry was super small so we said nevermind and that we'd just try the frozen mint tea. The sweet CM ended up pixie dusting us the almond crescent cookie we had been eyeing!



How sweet of her! I wish I had gotten her name. We saved the two treats for the kids to share with us and made our way to France where we had told Miss Maya to meet us. We had our very last LL for the night reserved for Remy's, so after goodbyes to Miss Maya (I hope we will see her again, now that she's in her dream career and delivering babies! obviously totally understanding if she hangs up her nanny hat) and joined the queue.



After the ride was done, DD7 asked me to take her picture while Matt got the stroller, so I obliged:



By then it was 9:13 so we'd once again found ourselves battling fireworks crowds despite not even watching them, ha! Not much of a way to avoid that, I guess. We strategically pushed (/pulled, at some points in the walk) the stroller so that they could watch the fireworks while Matt and I made our way toward International Gateway to try to get ahead of the masses once they were fully concluded for the evening. Regardless, it took around 45 minutes to get from Remy's to AoA and we were showered & jammied & teeth brushed around 10:15pm. The next day was our very last park day, so Matt and I stayed up a bit later to get at least a small amount of packing done- moreso just organizing things so that when we fully packed on our checkout day it wouldn't be a total disaster. I think that's one thing I will always do from now on - always always always book a later (mid afternoon) flight going home. That way we've got the entire morning on checkout day to get things arranged!

TOTAL STEPS: 23,975 (11.1 miles)

Up next: Thursday, August 21st (Day 9)