The Tenth Trip is the Best Trip and Eleven is Nice Too- July and December 2019 PTR *UPDATED 12/5*

[ashw100]

Whoo hoo for Mickey Mail!

I recently got the XR and love it!

I am enjoying so far, I can't tell if the pictures are better though. At least the battery won't die before I even use my first fastpass

Glad you scored the magicbands! I don’t know why they made that such a disaster lol.

Because it's Disney I am very happy I got them though, the next hurdle is getting them for my family in December.

I think you made a good call not renting a car! The magical express is pretty good and lyft and Uber are pretty cheap around the parks if you aren’t in the mood to deal with Disney transport.

That's what I am thinking, my husband is still trying to convince me to rent a car though

I got the XR right before we went to Disney also! I’m very happy with the picture quality

This is so good to hear. I am really happy with it so far, and I think it will work for this trip.

 

[missangelalexis]

Woo hoo for Mickey Mail and a new phone!!

I love my XR! The camera quality is great!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Hooray for so much great Mickey mail!

I'm a big fan of the Magical Express - the luggage delivery is the BEST THING EVER! I've even rented a car on Disney property in order to still ride the ME and get my luggage delivered. I know it will be a new-ish thing for you, but I think you'll enjoy it. It's also so nice to go straight from the plane to the transportation - it feels like your vacation starts at the airport!

I'm wondering if the Magical Express will get busier with the new resort parking fees. It could get quite pricy to have a rental car (or any car!) at Disney!

Hooray for custom Magic Bands! They look awesome! I'm glad you only had a few headaches in order to get them.

Congrats on your new phone! You'll be happy about the better battery life alone... but I think you'll love the camera. I still have an iPhone 8 but am seriously considering upgrading before our trip next year. I've heard great things about the camera on that phone!

 

[ashw100]

I love my XR! The camera quality is great!

That's good hear, I did lots of testing over the Fourth of July holiday and so far I am liking it.

I'm a big fan of the Magical Express - the luggage delivery is the BEST THING EVER! I've even rented a car on Disney property in order to still ride the ME and get my luggage delivered. I know it will be a new-ish thing for you, but I think you'll enjoy it. It's also so nice to go straight from the plane to the transportation - it feels like your vacation starts at the airport!

I actually agree with this, I usually drive from the airport to the hotel and it is so stressful. I like having Disney take the wheel.

I'm wondering if the Magical Express will get busier with the new resort parking fees. It could get quite pricy to have a rental car (or any car!) at Disney!

I don't think it will effect too much. Most people who fly already used Magical Express.

Hooray for custom Magic Bands! They look awesome! I'm glad you only had a few headaches in order to get them.

Thanks, I am happy with them. Hopefully this process will be less of a headache for December.

Congrats on your new phone! You'll be happy about the better battery life alone... but I think you'll love the camera. I still have an iPhone 8 but am seriously considering upgrading before our trip next year. I've heard great things about the camera on that phone!

The battery life is amazing. I'm going all day without charging, which I haven't experience in years.

 

[ashw100]

Before I jump back into this TR, I wanted to share my latest home project with someone who might appreciate it. DH and I have been trying to decide what to do with a blank wall in our living room. I knew I wanted pictures, but I was having a hard time finding the right ones. I had an idea to find some Disney ones from shots I have taken, but not ones that were obviously Disney. I am pretty happy with the result.

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I think it will be fun to have non-Disney people try to guess where they were taken. Here they are close up if you want to take part on the game. However, they're probably pretty easy if your here on the DIS.

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FPs

A few weeks ago we made FPs for our trip, and it feel like every time I go to make FPs for a trip it gets more and more frustrating. In fact, when I logged in to check my FPs for this post, I found my Toy Story Mania FP had disappeared. Thank goodness for the needing to update my PTR, otherwise I probably would have realized too late.

7/28

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Star Tours 9:05
Rock’n’Roller Coaster 10:40
Toy Story Midway Mania 1:15

I really hate have FP this late in the day, I am so hoping I can modify this to slightly earlier, but I’ll take what I can get.

7/29

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Splash 10:00
Big Thunder 11:15
Space 12:25

I am excited to complete all the mountains in one morning.

7/30

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Animation Experience 10:10
DINOSAUR 11:10
Flight of Passage 12:30

We originally had our Sanaa ADR for 1:00, but this was the first FOP FP I could get. I moved it to 1:30, so hopefully we’ll have enough time. I also had Expedition Everest, but I have that on another day, and I wanted to try the new Animation experience at Rafiki's Planet Watch.

7/31

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Tower of Terror 9:50
Rock’n’Roller Coaster 10:50
Slinky Dog 2:15

Again, I hate how late this is, but it’s what I could get. I think DHS definitely gave me the hardest time. I can’t even imagine how horrible it is going to be with the new tiers.

8/1

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Mission Space 9:05
Soarin’ 10:10
Living with the Land 11:10

8/2

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Flight of Passage 11:10
Expedition Everest 12:30
Kali River Rapids 1:30

I think Kali will be very refreshing at this point in the day.

8/3

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Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 12
Big Thunder 1:05
Space 2:05

This is our departure day, and we are basically going to go in and do these three plus Peoplemover and then fly home.

 

[missangelalexis]

Those shots are awesome! Such a subtle Disney touch!

Great FPs! I'm sorry DHS was so tough, you're right that it's only going to get worse!

 

[cindianne320]

UGH- I hate the way they do DHS FP+, even now! Glad you got the elusive Slinky Dog. I didn't realize there was a FP for the Animation experience. I can't wait to hear about it!

Love your new artwork! <3

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I love the photos on your wall! Cool idea to pick ones that are Disney but not so obvious.

Great FP plans. DHS always seems to be the most annoying and the new tiers are only going to make it worse for sure!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I LOVE your pictures! I have a hard time deciding if the Tower of Terror or the animal trail picture is my favorite.

Eek, I keep hearing how difficult it is to make FP+ reservations now - it gives me anxiety! It looks like you did really well, even if some of the times weren't exactly what you were hoping for. Also, what is this new animation experience at Rafiki's Planet Watch?! Is it like the old animation class at DHS?

 

[rdkeim]

Your trip plans sound great! Even with paring back the spending, you have a lot of fun things planned. I hate when unexpected expenses pop up. We rarely ever rent a car at Disney. Now that Uber and Lyft are available, it should be more than doable. We've even taken taxis when going from resort to resort. It seems a small price to pay for the convenience and time savings! Seems like something needs to change with how FP's work. Too hard to get and long FP lines.....

 

[ashw100]

Those shots are awesome! Such a subtle Disney touch!

Thank you!

Great FPs! I'm sorry DHS was so tough, you're right that it's only going to get worse!

I'm really hoping it will magically change before December but that seems doubtful.

UGH- I hate the way they do DHS FP+, even now! Glad you got the elusive Slinky Dog. I didn't realize there was a FP for the Animation experience. I can't wait to hear about it!

Yeah, the fact that they were offering FP and the class time were limited made me think I needed one. We'll see, I loved the class at DHS, so I hope this is just as good.

Love your new artwork! <3

thank you

I love the photos on your wall! Cool idea to pick ones that are Disney but not so obvious.

Thanks, we love subtle Disney, though I'm not sure why. Everyone knows were Disney loving freaks anyway

Great FP plans. DHS always seems to be the most annoying and the new tiers are only going to make it worse for sure!

I am hoping these particularly crappy tiers are tmeporary

I LOVE your pictures! I have a hard time deciding if the Tower of Terror or the animal trail picture is my favorite.

Thanks, I am partial to the AK one, but I seriously love them all

Eek, I keep hearing how difficult it is to make FP+ reservations now - it gives me anxiety! It looks like you did really well, even if some of the times weren't exactly what you were hoping for. Also, what is this new animation experience at Rafiki's Planet Watch?! Is it like the old animation class at DHS?

I think the animation class is similar to the old one, at least I hope it is. It just started on Thursday I believe, I will let you know how it goes.

Your trip plans sound great! Even with paring back the spending, you have a lot of fun things planned. I hate when unexpected expenses pop up. We rarely ever rent a car at Disney. Now that Uber and Lyft are available, it should be more than doable. We've even taken taxis when going from resort to resort. It seems a small price to pay for the convenience and time savings! Seems like something needs to change with how FP's work. Too hard to get and long FP lines.....

We definitely plan on using ride sharing from resort to resort, the buses would take forever. It doesn't sound like FPs are going to get better soon, with the rumor of a paid option coming. That's one thing Disneyland has over WDW. I wish we had the maxpass system in Florida.

 

[ashw100]

It is finally the time you have all been waiting for, I know you have been at the edge of our seats for the reveal of my master plan. See my planning usually goes like this:

1.Plan park days
2.Plan dining
3. Plan FPs
4. Make Master Plan, complete with touring plans for each day

So are you ready for my grand, master plan???

The master plan is... to have no plan.
I call it my the No Plan plan, Joe thinks I’m ridiculous.

I love making touring plans, I really do. I love to see how much we can cram into a day. I love knowing what to expect. Planning is my therapy. However, for this trip, I have not been into it. It comes down to a couple of things. First, being a busy year for my TA business, I have been making a lot of touring plans for others. Once something becomes a job, its not as fun to do it if you don’t have to. Second, the thought of no plan is kind of exciting. It’s not something we can do with the boys, because there are things we need to with them. But at this point in our travels, we have done everything we need to do and if we miss anything it’s not the end of the world.

Obviously, because of the regimented nature of a Disney vacation, there were things that needed to be planned; fastpasses, ADRs, etc. Now if I really wanted to have a no plan plan. I could just literally show up with nothing pre-booked. However, my Type-A personality only allows for so much of a non-plan. I could deeply regret not having my trusty touring plans in hand when we get to the parks, but I I don’t think I will. When I was solo on a trip, I threw all my plans out the window and it was so freeing. I want to use this time to really enjoy the parks, and not rush from one thing to the next just because the plans says so. Here is the general overview of our trip.

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There's only two weeks left to go and I need them to fly by. I ready for some Disney fun.

 

[missangelalexis]

Your schedule looks good! You're almost there!

 

[cindianne320]

Looks great! I hope the time flies by before your trip!

 

[afwdwfan]

Congrats on scoring magic bands. I guess you were one of the lucky ones. We considered upgrading while there, but I decided that Disney wasn't getting my money for magic bands, especially if they can't roll out the discounted ones without screwing it up!

FPs look good. DHS is certainly a challenge and your times might be later than ideal but they really aren't bad.

Good luck with Disney transportation... it can be hit or miss but hopefully you have better luck than the ones that were stuck on monorails in the heat yesterday. Might be a different type of trip without a car and detailed plan but that can really be freeing too. And as you know with kids just because you have a plan doesn't mean you get to follow it anyway. At least in this case it is what you and Joe want to do in the moment!

 

[ashw100]

Your schedule looks good! You're almost there!

It can't go by fast enough

Looks great! I hope the time flies by before your trip!

It is dragging, but only 8 days to go

Congrats on scoring magic bands. I guess you were one of the lucky ones. We considered upgrading while there, but I decided that Disney wasn't getting my money for magic bands, especially if they can't roll out the discounted ones without screwing it up!

I know, I actually can't believe I got them. I wouldn't reward Disney for their screw up by buying the full price bands either.

FPs look good. DHS is certainly a challenge and your times might be later than ideal but they really aren't bad.

I know, I'm being a brat , I just have gotten spoiled by getting all my fastpass before 1, so I can get more. I am not used to this, and I don't like it

Good luck with Disney transportation... it can be hit or miss but hopefully you have better luck than the ones that were stuck on monorails in the heat yesterday. Might be a different type of trip without a car and detailed plan but that can really be freeing too. And as you know with kids just because you have a plan doesn't mean you get to follow it anyway. At least in this case it is what you and Joe want to do in the moment!

I think it will be freeing to just do what we want. I am hopeful to have a relaxing Disney trip, is that even a thing?

 

[ashw100]

It's the Final Countdown

I go to Disney World this week! I seriously cannot believe the trip is almost here. I almost had to cancel this trip about three times, but I actually get to go.

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Can you tell I’m a tad bit excited? While there is lot of excitement to be had, I have to tamp it down, I don’t want to rub it in the kid’s faces. I actually feel super guilty about going without them again. I shouldn’t though, they have gone a lot and we are taking them four month later, but Mother’s guilt and all that . So what do you do when you feel like a terrible parent for leaving your kid to go to Disney World without them? I planned a super awesome family weekend , of course.

Our weekend started out on Friday night. We had junk food and watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I just got my oldest to start reading the books and he is hooked. My rule is generally you have to read the book before the movie, but the little ones will likely forget the plot before they are able to read it, so I made an exception this one time. Also, this movie made me mad at myself for not adding Universal to this trip. I love Harry Potter so much, but it hard to justify the expense. We also had a sleepover in the living room.

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The boys loved this, me not so much. It was rough sleeping on the couch and that was compounded by the fact that I had client fastpasses to make Saturday morning, and was up at 5:00am .

On Saturday, we took the boys mini golfing for the first time. We have been watching Holey Moley, which is a mini golf game show on ABC (it kind of reminds me of wipeout, but with mini golf). Anyway, the boys love it, and I wanted to take them to try it. It was brutally hot, but we did have an awesome time.

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We also booked one night in a hotel here in Fort Worth, just for fun. Joe has a big family, and they weren’t able to do many vacations, but his parent’s would do things like this to make it feel like they were on vacation. We got to enjoy the pool and lounging in the room watching movies on TV. We finished off the night with dinner at Saltgrass (mmm steak), and watched Mary Poppins Returns.

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On Sunday, we finished off our family weekend with more swimming and some Disney goodness, seeing the Lion King.

This week is going to be so busy, which will be a nice distraction from waiting for the countdown clock to tick down to zero. I did add two more ADRs to my trip, because I have a problem. Actually I added one ADR, and the other one I already had and just never cancelled.

We will be eating at Skipper Canteen on our Magic Kingdom evening. This place has been on my list for a while, and after reading so many good reviews, I decided to finally book it.

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The other reservation, I wasn’t sure we would want, but am now convinced we do is Toledo. This is the new restaurant on the top of the Gran Destino tower at CSR. It opened last week, and looks so amazing. I booked for 8:00 on arrival day. I think it will be a nice way to ease into our trip and we will get to see fireworks from there.

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That's all for now, hope everyone has an amazing week!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Hooray, your trip is almost here!!! Your weekend of fun for your kids sounded great - I'm sure they had a great time!

Is it bad I'm proud you added an ADR? I've never been to Skipper Canteen so I can't wait to hear what you think of it! It will also be fun to try the new place at CSR!

In case you don't check in again this week, good luck in packing and getting ready and have a GREAT trip!!!

 

[missangelalexis]

Yay for your trip almost being here!

Sounds like such a fun family weekend! I have been loving Holey Moley too!

 

[afwdwfan]

Looks like a fun family weekend. Nothing to be guilty about getting away from the kids for a few days, but that was certainly a nice way to spend some quality time before the trip.

Skipper Canteen has been on my radar too... I've had ADRs there and canceled in the past, but one of these days! Gran Destino looks really nice. I look forward to hearing about your meal at Toledo!