The Second Time is the Charm! School's Out, Disney's In! May 30th-June 13th, 2012!

[RalphinSC]

Followed you over from creativeamanda's PTR. We'll be at MK on June 1st too. That will actually be our last day for our trip. We'll be heading home the next day.

Thanks for stopping by! You must be about to chew on the furniture with your trip so close! Have a wonderful vacation and if you see us in the MK, be sure to say "hi!" We'll be there at rope drop!

 

[RalphinSC]

This looks like our final plans as of right now. Some minor changes to the original itenerary; mianly switching our DHS day.



May 30th Arrive in Orlando around 1pm. Check into the Comfort Inn on Irlo Bronson. Get our tickets from guest relations at DTD. Visit Disneyquest and enjoy Downtown Disney.


May 31st Valet park at the Poly and tour the Monorail resorts. Rent SeaRaycers at the Poly and cruise Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake. Head over to the Magic Kingdom and do a relaxed "smelling the roses" tour and ride Snow White's Scary Adventures one last time. Head back to the Poly in time to watch the Electrical Water Pageant and Wishes from the beach. Back to the Comfort Inn for the night.


June 1st Check out of the Comfort Inn and into Pop Century. Head over to the Magic Kingdom for rope drop. Tour MK until about 1pm or until the room is ready. Head back over to Pop and unpack / rest up / swim. Head back to the MK in the evening for the nighttime spectaculars and enjoy the evening EMH.


June 2nd Sleep in. Enjoy the hotel amenities. Maybe resort hop a bit. Possible evening trip back to Disneyquest.


June 3rd Open to close at Epcot with family from the area. Be sure to hit Soarin up one last time after watching Illuminations.


June 4th Waterpark morning at Blizzard Beach. Maybe Disneyquest or DTD in the evening. Could also be a total rest day. Flexible.


June 5th Hollywood Studios Open to close. Sign the little guy up for Jedi Training Academy. See the 10:30 Fantasmic show.


June 6th Animal Kingdom Open to Late Afternoon. Have a relaxed evening at the resort. Swim


June 7th Waterpark in the morning at Typhoon Lagoon. Relax and rest up in the evening for a long day at the MK.


June 8th Magic Kingdom rope drop. Mid afternoon break and then back for the Extra Magic Hours.


June 9th Possible Waterpark day or relaxing final day at Pop. Check out of Pop and back into the Comfort Inn on Irlo Bronson.


June 10th Star Wars Weekends at Disney Hollywood Studios. Focusing on the SWW stuff mostly since we have already gotten the rides in.


June 11th Possible Waterpark or Disneyquest Day. Could also tour resorts.


June 12th Either check out or extend our hotel stay based on vacation weariness and impulse. Final day of our ticket allotment. Depending on allotments possibly one or two minor parks. Head home either the 12th or the 13th.


June 13th Latest day possible in Orlando

 

[creativeamanda]

I like all of the rests you have planned in there--it's a must when you have so many days! We learned that the hard way last summer.

 

[creativeamanda]

Oh, and it looks like all of us will be in MK on June 1. I might need to get out the lime green Mickey heads.

 

[chinarider]

Cant believe our trips are so close now..... I remember first reading back probably over 6 months ago. That's great that you can keep a secret from you little one. How exciting... I was finally able to get free QS dining and paid to upgrade to the reg DDP. Problem is that there are breakfasts that i really want to try but, I dont really foresee being able to squeeze them in. It is my DD17 and myself (DM) and we will be a POP June 2-9 and then sailing the Western Caribbean on the Fantasy. These are my plans ( I think they are final)....
Sat 6/2 - plane arrives at 4:15, ME to POP, walk to AoA food court for dinner
(early night, we will be tired from getting up at 3 am in AZ)
Sun 6/3-CP breakfast 8:20, MK until afternoon, DTD to see Cars exhibit, 5:20 Ohana, back to MK for evening EMH and AAA preferred Fireworks viewing
Mon 6/4-AK Morning EMH, Pepper Market buffet lunch, HS Mama Melrose F pkg 6 pm, evening EMH HS
Tues 6/5-lazy morning, DTD etc, afternoon Epcot , Rose and Crown dinner 7:40, Illuminations Epcot evening EMH
Wed 6/6- HS morning EMH, Epcot after noon Le Cellier lunch 2:30, evening???
Thurs 6/7-MK morning EMH, LTT early lunch 11:30, perhaps AK in afternoon, Boma dinner 6pm
Friday 6/8- not quite sure ( start packing ), perhaps Epcot morning EMH, meeting relatives in DTD for Raglan Road lunch at noon. Late afternoon evening up in the air ( not literally )
Sat- rise and shine way early, take early ME to airport to take early ME to Mickeys ship
Still trying to finalize my excursions for the ship. My DD is not real excited about any of them ( except the Secret River in Cozumel , which we will be doing again ). So, I am debating if its worth spending the extra money on things that she might enjoy but isnt excited about......
Your plans seem great and I am jealous of the extra time you have in DW. we are not doing water parks or DQ this time and I still wish we were there longer. I probably also wish I was staying at BW or so but, I cant seem to swallow spending the extra money for the two of us when we're not in the room all that much. Maybe on a longer trip but, I'm not sure if my DD will go back with me so, next time it might be solo. Suitcases are coming out next weekend and the real packing will begin.

 

[RalphinSC]

I like all of the rests you have planned in there--it's a must when you have so many days! We learned that the hard way last summer.

Yeah, last year I remember vividly when I hit that wall. We had done consecutive days of 14 and 16 hours in the MK with no breaks aside from sitting down for meals and had just finished a third straight 12 hour day at Epcot. I initially had planned to hop over to the MK that night by myself and enjoy the 3am EMH. But by the end of that Epcot day, I literally had to limp back to the bus utterly exhausted and worn out.

Our itenerary from last year:

March 2nd Arrive 7pm. Headed to DTD. Ate at Earl of Sandwich. and shopped. Stayed at Motel 6 Maingat West.

March 3rd Toured Monrail resorts. Checked into ASMovies. Breakfast at Chef Mickeys. Toured Monorail Resorts. Rented Searaycers. Swam at the hotel pool. Went to DTD. Dinner at Trex.

March 4th Magic Kingdom 8am-9pm. Lunch at Crystal Palace. Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party to watch Wishes.

March 5th Magic Kingdom 8am-midnight. Lunch at Pecos Bills. Dinner at Casey's. MSEP. Rode rides during the fireworks.

March 6th Epcot 9am-9pm Lunch at Sunshine Seasons. Dinner at Beirgarten. HIT THE WALL and skipped planned EMH at the Magic Kingdom.

March 7th 10am Breakfast at Ohana's. 1:30pm-8pm DHS. Dinner at Mama Melrose's. Watched Fantasmic.

March 8th 9am rope drop at DHS. Hopped to Epcot at 6pm. Garden Grill for dinner.

March 9th Rope drop at Animal Kingdom. RAINED. Had the park almost to ourselves. Loved it! Left at 5pm. Dinner at Boma.

March 10th Checked out of hotel. Lunch at Fulton's Crab house in DTD. Went home.

Three things we learned from that (or experienced enough of to skip this time)

-Sit down ADR's were just too time consuming and too much food. We got our fill of character meals, no need for the full DDP this time.

-9 days. 6 straight days in the parks. I thought the half day break on the first DHS day would be enough, but I was wrong. Going to do no more than two major park days in a row this trip and building in tons of flexibility and break time.

-Park hoppers were a waste of money. We did build in the one hop into our touring but I feel we could do so much better with some solid strategy and enjoy the WPF&M option more.
Only on one day did we feel that we got behind the ball on the lines, and that was at Epcot when Test Track and Soarin both broke down. (We had waited through a twenty minute line at TT and 15 minutes longer when it broke down). Just blew the whole plan up and Everything in future world backed up due to it. (MS: Orange 40 minutes, SS earth 30minutes)

-Also we learned we were absolutely CRAZY about Disney and wanted to go back for TWO WEEKS the next time! LOL!




So this year we built in rest days, killed the full DDP, and added the WPF&M instead of the parkhopper, and added in a 15 day trip this year.

That's right, my honeybear got a lower than anticipated rate ath the post-pop hotel today and went ahead and booked us for the night of the 12th too. This trip is growing to an epic length. I'm spoling myself! LOL!

 

[RalphinSC]

Oh, and it looks like all of us will be in MK on June 1. I might need to get out the lime green Mickey heads.

See you at rope drop if you are there! We'll be at the right tunnel for the sprint to Space Mountain. OR Maybe with our super early selves, we'll luck up and get Family of the Day!

 

[RalphinSC]

Cant believe our trips are so close now..... I remember first reading back probably over 6 months ago. That's great that you can keep a secret from you little one. How exciting... I was finally able to get free QS dining and paid to upgrade to the reg DDP. Problem is that there are breakfasts that i really want to try but, I dont really foresee being able to squeeze them in. It is my DD17 and myself (DM) and we will be a POP June 2-9 and then sailing the Western Caribbean on the Fantasy. These are my plans ( I think they are final)....
Sat 6/2 - plane arrives at 4:15, ME to POP, walk to AoA food court for dinner
(early night, we will be tired from getting up at 3 am in AZ)
Sun 6/3-CP breakfast 8:20, MK until afternoon, DTD to see Cars exhibit, 5:20 Ohana, back to MK for evening EMH and AAA preferred Fireworks viewing
Mon 6/4-AK Morning EMH, Pepper Market buffet lunch, HS Mama Melrose F pkg 6 pm, evening EMH HS
Tues 6/5-lazy morning, DTD etc, afternoon Epcot , Rose and Crown dinner 7:40, Illuminations Epcot evening EMH
Wed 6/6- HS morning EMH, Epcot after noon Le Cellier lunch 2:30, evening???
Thurs 6/7-MK morning EMH, LTT early lunch 11:30, perhaps AK in afternoon, Boma dinner 6pm
Friday 6/8- not quite sure ( start packing ), perhaps Epcot morning EMH, meeting relatives in DTD for Raglan Road lunch at noon. Late afternoon evening up in the air ( not literally )
Sat- rise and shine way early, take early ME to airport to take early ME to Mickeys ship
Still trying to finalize my excursions for the ship. My DD is not real excited about any of them ( except the Secret River in Cozumel , which we will be doing again ). So, I am debating if its worth spending the extra money on things that she might enjoy but isnt excited about......
Your plans seem great and I am jealous of the extra time you have in DW. we are not doing water parks or DQ this time and I still wish we were there longer. I probably also wish I was staying at BW or so but, I cant seem to swallow spending the extra money for the two of us when we're not in the room all that much. Maybe on a longer trip but, I'm not sure if my DD will go back with me so, next time it might be solo. Suitcases are coming out next weekend and the real packing will begin.

Looks like we'll be zigging to your zagging almost the entire week. But I really like you itnerary with the teenage daughter. You guys are going to OWN all the EMH's!

The cruise/park combo is a really cool thing. MAYBe we can do something like that soon but likely not next year. We are planning a cruise over the second full week of April next year to co-incide with Spring Break. Maybe we'll also get a short week trip to WDW in in early summer too but then I might just hold off until the rest of Fantasyland is done in 2014. I bet it'll be next to impossible to convince me to NOT go though.

 

[RalphinSC]

Oh, in case anyone missed it in my reply to creativeamanda , we did go ahead and add on the extra night of the twelfth. So this trip is now a 14 night/15 day extravaganza!

The Caleb creature stayed at his Me-Me's tonight so we started the packing war. The funniest moment came when I accidentally put on my wife's shirt when she wanted me to try on our matching Mickey shirts that we bought through the Spring Disney sale at Wal-Mart. It was TIGHT but I was still going to wear it anyway. That's when we noticed her shirt was loose and a glance at the tags confirmed it.

Still looking for her princess mouseears though. Right now they are MIA. We did sneak into the Caleb's room and re-acquire his ears that were at the bottom of his toy chest. They are personalized and still fit. He'll see them again at the moment when he realizes that we are surprising him with a trip to Disney again!

 

[RalphinSC]

I made an ADR!

Actually, I was thinking about the 31st and hitting the Poly for a resort tour / Searaycer rental. Well, in thinking it through I started thinking about things I really want to try at the Poly. Aside from the Lapu Lapu, the top on my list is the Tonga Toast

So we went ahead and sprung for the ADR at Kona at 8am on the 31st. Out of Pocket, it's just an expensive breakfast, but we should swin it for less than $40 total and just skip lunch that day. (except for that Lapu Lapu )

 

[RalphinSC]

The last Pre-trip report I guess since we leave in the morning. Just had to throw in that we surprised the silly Caleb thing tonight with the trip (against the plan, I know but it helps with the packing.)

Needless to say, his reaction was as silly and as impetuous as always and it made my day.

I just had to load this link and add it as a last "goodbye" before we leave in the A.M. Thanks for all who have stopped by. Please say hi if you see us in the parks!

Video link:Caleb's Disney Surprise

 

[chinarider]

Just watched your video. That is so awesome. Kudos to you and your wife for keeping that secret. Cant' believe it's trip time already. Have safe travels. We leave on Saturday. We will be at POP as well, look for me with the 17 year old rolling her eyes (I'm sure she'll find a reason to ). Maybe our paths cross.

 

[RalphinSC]

Just watched your video. That is so awesome. Kudos to you and your wife for keeping that secret. Cant' believe it's trip time already. Have safe travels. We leave on Saturday. We will be at POP as well, look for me with the 17 year old rolling her eyes (I'm sure she'll find a reason to ). Maybe our paths cross.

We'll look out for you! We should be easy to spot with that crazy eight year old leading the way. Just got through showing him a bunch of pictures of Pop like I promised him. He really likes the yo-yo's, big wheel, and bowling pins. As well as three pools!

The car is packed except for chargin electronics and perishables. The little one is about to head off to bed and myself and the dW will be shortly afterward. A short seven hour drive awaits us in the morning. Hopefully, we'll be down there and walking through DTD no later than 4 tomorrow after we arrive and get the hotel squared away. Gonna be a FUN, FUN time!!!!

 

[creativeamanda]

Your video brought tears to my eyes! That would totally be my son's response.

Hope you have a magical trip. Careful in all the rain today!!!