The Second Trip with a Diabetic, A TeenBrat, and a first timer. PreTrip Report August 2016 **DONE!

[Nicholmom3]

Hello All!

We are so very close to our first trip in nearly 10 years, and I have tweaked our plans over and over. I have decided that a PTR is the perfect way to stretch out the planning just a little bit more!

I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to interject with any suggestions or recommendations you may have.

The Trip:
August 19-27, 2016
Beach Club
8 Day Park Hoppers and 1 day Water Park

The Cast:
Me!- I'm a 36 year old mom, wife, Disney lover. I love to plan trips, down to daily outfits. My plans range from set in stone (capital P Plan) to flexible (lowercase p plan).
DH- 40 year old, pretends-to-go-with-the-flow-but-complains-about-everything dad. He is a brittle Type 1 diabetic, which throws a wrench in the Plan every damn day. You can take that to the bank.
DD13- My lovely daughter hates the idea that she is twin of my husband's personality, but it's true. I can usually convince her to come along for just about anything though.
DS9- He is my boy, through and through. Up for anything, anytime. The last time we visited the World, he was an 11 month old chillin' in his stroller. I'm so incredibly excited for his "first" trip.

I think I'll do chapters, just as practice for my trip report. I doubt anyone will actually read or need chapters, but whatevs.

Previous Trip Report- August 2007 With a baby, a brat, and a diabetic!

Disney Bounding!- Why, Yes, I am planning coordinating outfits for each person, each day. Is that weird?

Travel Plans- Day 1- I'm sorry, I booked the flight for how early?
Day 2- Ooh Ooh Aah Aah Animal Kingdom
Day 3- Dun Duuuun Dun Dun duh DUN Dahhhh (ahem, Star Wars)
Day 4- MK/EP Switchies
Day 5- Blizzard Beach...NO! Typhoon Lagoon...NO! Blizzard Beach!
Day 6- Oh Man, It's gonna be a long day. MK
Day 7- Epcot, Explore the World
Day 8- Just wanna see that Yeti!
Day 9- We promised ourselves we wouldn't cry!

 

[Nicholmom3]

Disney Bounding!

A little background here. I may be like millions of others who quickly became addicted to Pinterest. I've had some wonderful projects and ideas come from Pinterest, and some mighty fails. I even had a fail get published to CraftFail! I'm pretty proud of that.

When I began researching for this trip and came across DisneyBounding, I was sold. The very idea tickles my obsessive planning little heart. My DD was quick to jump on board, but tired of it soon after (typical). DS will happily wear just about anything I pack for him so long as it is comfy. DH is mostly the same. Since I am the one buying 99.99% of all the clothes anyway it leaves me plenty of room to play.

I have taken on the challenge of creating outfits that are inspired by different Disney Characters, but will not outwardly identify them. With the one exception of StarWars. I found an adorable storm trooper shirt for DS and DH will likely wear his Darth Father shirt.

I will list the outfits as ideas below, and add them to particular days in their respective chapters.


NeverLand:
Me: (Wendy) Light Blue/White Sundress
DD13: (Mr. Smee) Blue&White striped shirt with teal shorts, red headband
DH: (Capt Hook) Red&Gold Polo (Thank goodness for Boston College) Khaki shorts
DS9: (Peter Pan) Green polo with dark green shorts

100 Acres:
Me: (Pooh) Red tank with yellow shorts or skirt
DD13: (Tigger) Orange tank with black shorts
DS9: (Christopher Robin) Yellow T with blue shorts
DH: (Owl) Brown Shirt with tan shorts

Villains: My personal favorite
Me: (Queen of Hearts) White tank with red hearts, red shorts
DD13: (Maleficent) black tank with purple and green shorts
DS9: (Sid) Skull T with grey shorts ( I won't subject the poor kid to jean shorts in August)
DH: (Jafar) ? not convinced on this one. Red&Black shirt with black shorts

Wonderland:
Me: (Either Old School Mad Hatter or Alice) Teal and Yellow with teal headband and Number necklace or Blue Shirt, white shorts, with black headband
DD13: (Cheshire Cat) Pink & purple stripe shirt with purple shorts
DS9: (White Rabbit) White T with red shoulders (baseball style) Grey shorts
DH: still undecided

Nemo:
Me: undecided, probably Peach.. Coral colors with starfish necklace
DD13: (Dory) Blue tank with black shorts and yellow sunglasses and headband
DS9: (Nemo) Nemo T shirt from Disney store with orange shorts
DH: (Bruce) Grey T grey shorts

TLM:
Me: (Ariel) Purple T with teal skirt
DD: (Flounder) Yellow T with aqua shorts
DS: (Sebastian) Red T red shorts
DH: (Prince Eric) White Shirt with Blue shorts

Classic:
Me: (Minnie or Donald) Black tank/Red shorts or Blue Shirt/White shorts, blue and yellow headband
DD: (Pluto) mustard tank with mustard or black shorts, green headband
DS: (Goofy) Orange Shirt Blue Shorts
DH: (Mickey) Black Shirt Red Shorts

Star Wars:
Me: (Leia?) White tank with White Skirt, possibly some leia bun ears.
DD: (BB8) White with Orange
DS: Storm Trooper T-shirt with white and black shorts
DH: Darth Father T-Shirt with Shorts.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Day 1- Travel Day! AKA I'm sorry, I booked the flight for how early?

I'll admit. I didn't get the cheapest flight available. I probably made transportation to the airport a little more complicated than it needed to be. I didn't even get non stop flights! My primary goal was to maximize our time AT Disney. I figured I won't sleep the night before anyways, so what's the big about waking up at 2:30 to drag my family out of bed and get ourselves to not the closest airport? Mission Accomplished.

We live between two airports. I suppose they are fairly close to equidistant from us, although Providence is by far the smaller airport, and had the cheaper prices. The flight times turned me off though. If we had wanted to waste two days of our trip, than I would have been happy to save a couple hundred bucks. Boston is usually a zoo, but I sure solved that problem by ensuring we would need to be there before anyone else in Massachusetts would be awake.

Our flight LEAVES at 6 am. I am still trying to figure out exactly HOW we are getting to the airport. It's a bit too early to beg a ride from friends or family, and a car service from the house is insane. My dear sister-in-law booked us a room at the Hyatt close to Boston for the employee rate, but the logistics of getting from there to the airport are complicated.

So, as it stands (in no particular order):

Plan 1: Coordinate an Uber with a driver known to us, from the house. By far the best and cheapest plan, although we haven't nailed it down yet.
Plan 2: Stay at the Hyatt. This one is wrought with complication. I work in Braintree, so I will be driving home from work, packing everyone up, driving BACK to Braintree. Coordinating check in with SIL. Sleeping for maybe an hour or so. Piling everyone back in the car to head over to the Logan Express shuttle. Paying $24 each round trip Plus $7 day to park car. Ugh.
Plan 3: Wake up at 2:30, drive to Braintree. Park at work for the week (free and someone can keep an eye on the car) order a shuttle from my office (cheaper than the logan express)

So far I like Plans 1 with 3 a close second. I'm holding on to the reservation for now, just in case.

We have a short layover in ATL, and should be arriving at MCO around noonish. I'm guessing the ME will have us to the hotel between 1-2. We will check our carryon's with bell service and take our beach bags to the pool to relax.

We have dinner reservations at the Yachtsmen Steakhouse at 5, so it gives us plenty of time to get our room, wash up and change into our first DisneyBound outfits! Our First Night will be Neverland, only because it is a little on the dressier side, for the steakhouse.

From there, if we are still standing, we will head to the MK for our Fastpass+ for 7 Dwarves MineTrain. I hope we don't miss it, as it's the only time I could get for the entire week. We plan on seeing the MSEP and the castle show/Wishes, so that later in the week we can use that time to ride with fewer lines.

I'm fairly certain we will be coasting on fumes and caffeine at that point.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Day 2: Animal Kingdom- Ooh Ooh Aah Aah

DisneyBounding Outfits: Nemo and Friends

The Plan is to get up for early EMH. Crazy after the travel day, but I have faith that the excitement for our first full day will get the family up and at 'em.

I am Planning on getting the bus between 7, 7:15. I will have sent down a box with breakfast goodies and we can enjoy our portable breakfast while waiting for the park to open. I am hoping to hit the safari first thing, hopefully to see more animals as it will be early and only 98 degrees instead of 120.

For the day I have FP+ for EE, Kali, and Jungle Book. Our goals are to go on EE at least twice, the safari, Lion King, Primeval Whirl, Tree of Life Awakenings, Jungle Book show. We will eat around 11ish, leave, and go back to the hotel for a few/4 hours. I am looking forward to exploring AK more and really pay attention to all the details. When we last went, I had my hands full with a baby, so this time I'm making myself just a scootch more of a priority.

We do not have any dinner reservations for today. Most likely going to try various offerings at Yak &Yeti and Maharani Food Market? Unless someone has a good suggestion. We did enjoy the Flame Tree BBQ before, so that is always a safe option.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Day 3- Hollywood Studios, StarWars Extravaganza

DisneyBounding Outfits- StarWars!

Another early morning, but the night before we will be back at a reasonable hour. It is our only planned HS day, so I'm hoping the troops aren't flagging. I haven't told DS about the Jedi Training, because I don't want him to be disappointed if we are late for sign ups.
It is another EMH so up and at 'em, breakfast in hand. I have the plan to head to the far left turnstile, asking the CM the best location for heading to the signups. Once done, we will head to RnR for a thrilling start to the day. We have a FP+ for ToT for shortly after. Our TSM FP+ is a bit later than I wanted, 12:55, but I'm hoping they might let us employ the slightly earlier access, and we will again head back to the hotel for a break.

Our Dinner Res is early, 4:15 at Sci-Fi. I might try to push it back closer to 5. If not, that's ok. It really will depend on the time frame we get for the JTA.
Our Star Tours FP+ is 7:35, and I've been told we should not miss Fantasmic! I hadn't planned on it, but I certainly want to give it a shot.
We might stay for the fireworks, if the show is still StarWars themed. I haven't been able to nail that down yet. That too will depend on how pooped we are.

 

[VACamm]

Sounds like you have some great plans, and I LOVE the outfit choices!

 

[absolutmey]

I (personally) love Disney bounding. Your ideas are awesome! Great start to your PTR.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Thank you!

 

[Nicholmom3]

Umm, so I am not very good at finishing my trip reports. At least, I'm not very good at finishing pre-trip reports.

Why is it that when planning a trip a year seems like forever, and yet actually when on the trip the time flies by in a blink? My blink started the week before our trip. I had SOOOOO much left to do, and I flat out ran out of time to do it. Yes, I forgot some things, yes I let some things go. I stressed, I cried a little. I lost some much needed sleep. In the end, my family had a great Disney vacation and I get to prolong it just a little bit more with a trip report.

And maybe the beginning of a new trip plan.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Quickly, I'll flesh out the plans for the week.

Day 4- MK/EP Switchies

The plan for the day is to Rope Drop Magic Kingdom, hit up all of the big rides and some of the smaller ones as well. We only have a few hours planned, but plenty of time to get the headliners out of the way.

Our mid day break includes returning to the hotel for nap/swim, and in the afternoon heading over to Epcot.

Epcot is my personal favorite, but I didn't anticipate the kids enjoying it very much. I only planned two half days, mostly to utilize the obnoxious tiered fast passes.

We don't have any reservations for the day, as I planned dinner to be shared bites from around the World Showcase, followed by dessert watching illuminations.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Day 5- Drum roll.......Blizzard Beach wins!

Today the only park we are visiting is Blizzard Beach. Capital P Plan has us arriving for park open (10am, off the top of my head) and hitting as many slides as possible, including Summit Plummet. I can't believe I am actually going to voluntarily scoot myself over a vertical 120 ft near free fall. Crazy.

We will leave BB around 4ish and head over to AKL for a dinner reservation at Boma. I am anticipating being completely exhausted so we will head home for an early night, but if the natives are restless we could always hit up Disney Springs.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Day 6- The longest day in MK

Today is going to hurt a little. Not for me, I could do rope drop to Kiss Goodnight anytime. I have to think of the others, though, so I only planned the one commando day. It's a good thing our previous night wraps up a bit early.
We begin with an 8:45 reservation at Kona. My husband has been wanting to eat Tonga Toast for 10 years. That is not an exaggeration. I'm pretty sure he would leave me if I cancelled this reservation again.

From Kona we take the monorail to MK, and make our way around the kingdom. It's our day to really explore, do all of our favorite rides, some classics, and generally experience the MK. We have dinner reservations for the 4pm Hoop De Doo Revue, which I'm hoping will be a sufficient break to allow us to close out MK.

Time will tell.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Day 7- Explore the World- Epcot Style!

This day is for me. I really love Epcot. I'm hoping the kids will have fun going to all the different countries, so that I can relax and enjoy it without listening to how booooorrred they are.

We are also scheduled to sleep in this morning, due to the late night before. I don't have fast passes until early afternoon and WS doesn't open until after 11 anyways. Dinner will be snacking around the WS again, as I love to do.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Day 8- Love that Yeti!!

I am fully anticipating my kids will love Expedition Everest. I'm guessing they will want to return to AK for it at least one more time. We will spend the morning at AK, head back to the hotel for lunch and rest, and go to Disney Springs for souvie shopping and dinner at Raglan Road.

 

[Nicholmom3]

Day 9- Don't Let Them See You Cry

Our flight home is at 4:30 pm, but MCO is notorious for long security lines, and Magical Express makes sure to get you to the airport waaaay ahead of time. We will have time to go to the MK for a few final rides, and to say See Ya Real Soon to the castle. We have a PPO reservation at Crystal Palace, but I m pretty sure I will cancel it. I really don't want to rush out of the hotel that early on our last morning.