Two to Tango - First Couple's trip to WDW pre-trip report

[msk]

I too am looking forward to no kids, or grandchildren. We have F&W planned, two tours, and MVMCP all for the first time. It should be a wonderful week for all of us!

 

[P&L@WDW]

Wow! Less than 4 months until we're at Disney world! Time is flying by - this summer is going to be over before I know it!

There's been a few small changes to our schedule for at the parks. I have changed our MNSSHP attendance to Sunday, October 30. Our original date of the Friday is projected to be THE busiest party, whereas the one on the Sunday is projected to be somewhere in the middle of the pack. Because of this, I flipped our plans for Epcot from the 30 to the 28, as our first day! We might go to Magic Kingdom in the morning so that DBF's first Disney experience is mainstreet, and then hop over to Epcot in the afternoon/evening. I also snagged an 8:30 reservation at the Rose and Crown - fireworks for that night are scheduled at 10 pm, so it's an ideal time to hopefully get a patio spot!

As to our costumes, I received the wig I had planned to use for Belle this week - sadly, it is far too thin to style! So I have ordered another one:

The wig is meant to be for her yellow dress (obviously) but I think with a bit of adjustment (mostly moving the ponytail down, and continuing the styling twist from the front around the sides) this one will work really well!

Gaston is finished, other than styling his wig (which is ridiculously easy - literally just putting it into a ponytail, and adding Gaston's signature front pompadour!) Belle's dress needs two small adjustments (to shorten the straps and take in the chest darts slightly); her apron, blouse, and hair bow are all finished, and her shoes are ready to go!

 

[P&L@WDW]

Closer and closer! DBF is finally starting to get excited.

Today I booked us for Tea at the GF on Oct 31 at 3:55 - this is something I absolutely love doing, and something DBF will just tolerate. However, I am making up for it by planning a special stop ta the Coke store in Disney Springs, with a visit to the rooftop bar. DBF is a huge nut for all things Coke, so that should make up for it!

We're also looking at maybe splurging for our anniversary. We're considering the Ultimate Day of Thrills VIP tour...! I'm not sure if it'll be worth the 500$ price tag for the two of us for one day but...it might be a really neat experience!

 

[P&L@WDW]

Well, it's been a while since I updated! Oops! Not too much to report in the preparation department - DBF and I have begun walking regularly to get ready for all the walking we'll be doing at Disney. I have a desk job - I just got myself a Fitbit Alta and have found my daily steps have more than doubled...I am now averaging between 7000-11000 a day, which is great! I'd like to get up to regularly doing 12,000 a day before Disney.

In other news, I discovered why my DBF was happy but not super excited about our trip. He didn't think we'd have enough to do at WDW to keep ourselves busy for 2 weeks! Silly boy was thinking it was like DL and that we'd have seen/done it all in three days! I've set him straight on that topic and now he's nearly as excited as I am for our trip. He has begun regularly asking me for updates on how long it is until we leave.

 

[P&L@WDW]

So, just a little over the 9 week mark left to go! Things are falling into place - reservations are all made for dinners, plans are made for parks, tickets are bought for the parks, MNSSHP and MVMCP. Costumes are 90% finished, the sundresses I'm sewing are slowly starting to be finished, and I've begun picking up small items (sunscreen, etc) as I see them.

I also have made arrangements for a special anniversary gift for DBF and myself - we are going to have a Disney photo session while we are there! I've been in contact with Jaime of www.jaimediorio.com - I fell in love with her style when I saw her website, and although she's quite pricey, it is a splurge we have agreed to make! I am so excited! Her personality seems to fit so well with DBF's and mine - she's as much a goofball as we are! She's going to come and spend an extra 30 minutes with us at our rented condo before our session at WDW, so DBF can get to know her and get over his anxiety (he has a disorder, and meeting new people can be extremely stressful for him) - we'll have a snack, share a drink, and THEN head to the park (Magic Kingdom, yay) for 2 hours of photographs - we might squeeze in a bit of time at the Grand Floridian as well!

 

[P&L@WDW]

Well...Gaston wig is done. It is far from perfect, but I think it gets the idea across.

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[P&L@WDW]

Well, we're down to less than six weeks! Ack! We are getting so excited - our suitcases are out, and as we pack away summer clothes (Yes, it's that time of year in Canada - mornings are cool enough right now that we need a jacket, and leaves have already begun to change and fall off trees!) we are putting what we want to take with us into them.

I called yesterday and managed to snag an ADR for our very first park day - BOG for lunch! I mentioned it in passing to my BF, and his response was "Can we go now? Do they have the rose there? Is it actually floating? How do they do that! I wanna see the west wing!" I guess I know where we're sitting! Haha.

All my sewing is coming along - I'm down to one last dress to sew, and then just all the finishing touches (sewing hems, putting in zippers, etc). If you're interested, I actually had a thread ( http://www.disboards.com/threads/opinions-please-my-disney-wardrobe.3541287/#post-56411001 ) for opinions because I was nervous what I was planning on wearing was too 'young' for me. The response was really quite positive, and I'm once again excited for my custom wardrobe!

I'm also pretty excited about this! Some folks may find this silly, but I'm super excited about my 'prop' - As you know, I'm going as Village Belle and didn't want to carry around a purse/bag that would 'ruin' the look (I'm a total dork!) SO! I came up with this idea! It's actually way more blue in real life, but the lighting in the pictures was off.







It shuts with super strong magnets, and can easily hold lots - cards, keys, lipstick, money, etc. My only disappointment is I couldn't find a blue book with a french title!

 

[P&L@WDW]

Down to 33 days until we go! This week, I've been digging into the Food and Wine festival menu's - I was intrigued by the Festival Sampler, and wanted to figure out if it would be worth it for us. Being that we're two adults with no kids, the drinks are (of course) what caught my eye - I think I've figured out which ones we're most likely to enjoy.

Our must try list:

Frozen Caipirinha
Happy Peach
Frozen Daiquiri Ice Pop
La Passion Martini Slush
Frozen Margarita
Frozen Apple Pie
Frozen Brown Elephant
Mango Starr
Pineapple Dole Whip with Rum

Our Maybe try list:

Kung Fu Punch
Frozen Mojito
Pineapple Breeze Sake
Mezcal Pineapple Margarita
Jalapeno Margarita
Strawberry lemon sunset
Dragon Berry Refresher

These drinks are all 8-10.50$ each. The 16 drinks we’d most like to try comes to a total of 153.50$. The 16 voucher Festival Sampler comes to about 116$ with tax. This saves us about 37$, so for us it will be worth while. But I can absolutely see how it could go the other way, if you used it for food items or less expensive drinks.

 

[MissMet]

We are doing an adults only trip as well, October 29-November 5, and we are also in our early-mid thirties. I also wanted to do Gaston & Village Belle, but hubby vetoed that idea, since he refuses to view himself as Gaston. We're going to Jellyrolls for their "Halloween Party" & we're dressing up as Wayne & Garth from Wayne's World, as our last name just may be "Wayne". Glad to hear you've started packing...now I don't feel so crazy! I've started a PTR/TR myself. http://www.disboards.com/threads/th...-without-kids-oct-16-ptr-update-9-22.3542660/

 

[jpeden]

If you can, I'd add on the Wilderness Lodge to your pub crawl. It's not on the monorail line, but If you start there (take a boat from MK) you can take a boat from the Wilderness Lodge to the Contemporary and continue on your way. The lounge next to Artist Point is excellent. Also, make sure to get a Lapu Lapu at the lounge at the Polynesian - it's a can't miss!

 

[P&L@WDW]

If you can, I'd add on the Wilderness Lodge to your pub crawl. It's not on the monorail line, but If you start there (take a boat from MK) you can take a boat from the Wilderness Lodge to the Contemporary and continue on your way. The lounge next to Artist Point is excellent. Also, make sure to get a Lapu Lapu at the lounge at the Polynesian - it's a can't miss!

Great suggestion - I'll see about adding that in there!

 

[P&L@WDW]

Let me start by saying - I love seeing Tink so close to the end of the ticker in my signature! YAY!

Well, fastpass+ selections have begun! I had held out hope that I might get lucky and snag a FP+ for Frozen in Norway, BUT that looks like an impossibility. We'll go standby and hope for some pixie dust. We're only a few days in, but with the exception of the most popular attractions (Frozen, 7DMT), there seems to be lots of FP+'s available. I've been able to get passes with windows starting at 9 am on each of our 3 days so far, and stacked them close together (with 0-15 minutes between the end of one window and the start of the next).

So, you know that everyone has that one thing they hate doing at Disney, along with that one thing they absolutely HAVE to do. For me, the one thing I hate is It's a Small World. It's not a horrible ride, and the animatronics are cute (and kind of creepy) but that damn song gets stuck in my head and I can never get it out; and the one thing I love is Tea at the Grand Floridian. Well, DBF decided to use that to his advantage. Along with lunch at BOG (in the west wing he insists, as I mentioned in an earlier post), DBF said he would only go to tea with me if I agreed to go on IaSW ...so guess what I'm going on this trip? The good news is that it'll be our second day out of a 15 day trip, so I have lots of time to try and forget the song, and plenty of chances to drink away the memory at F&W and during our Pub Crawl!

 

[Boomerdog]

Looks Like A Lot Of Fun!

Did anyone mention that Blizzard Beach will be closed during that time? It is Typhoon Lagoons turn to be open during the winter refurbishments.

 

[P&L@WDW]

Looks Like A Lot Of Fun!

Did anyone mention that Blizzard Beach will be closed during that time? It is Typhoon Lagoons turn to be open during the winter refurbishments.

Yes, I realized that a while after I made my original post; our schedule has already been updated accordingly.

 

[P&L@WDW]

Well, we're down to crunch time! Only 2 weeks (and one day, but who's counting? ) and we'll be throwing our last minute items in our bag! I just finished ordering our groceries for pick up, and have selected our seats for our flights down and back home. We're waiting for one more package of Disney t-shirts for my boyfriend to arrive before I can start packing in earnest!

It's amazing how time changes plans - no matter how much we think we have things figured out, they always manage to change! Our final itinerary is somewhat different than the one I made months ago when I started this thread!

Oct 27 - Arrive, collect groceries, settle into condo
Oct 28 - Magic Kingdom for the morning and early afternoon, Animal Kingdom for the evening
Oct 29 - Magic Kingdom in the morning, Epcot in the afternoon/evening. BOG lunch reservation.
Oct 30 - Rest in the morning, MNSSHP in the evening
Oct 31 - Magic Kingdom in the morning, Epcot in the afternoon/evening. Rose & Crown reservation at 7:40 pm
Nov 1 - Universal Studios
Nov 2 - Hollywood Studios all day. Prime Time Diner at 4:40
Nov 3 - Animal Kingdom in the morning and afternoon, Epcot in the evening. Biergarten at 8:30 pm
Nov 4 - Universal Studios
Nov 5 - Wet'n'wild waterpark, possibly Disney Springs in the evening
Nov 6 - Islands of Adventure all day, Disney Springs in the evening
Nov 7 - Rest in the morning, photo session in MK in the afternoon, drinks in Epcot in the evening
Nov 8 - Hollywood studios in the morning and afternoon, Monorail pub crawl in the evening. Sci-fi dine-in at 2 pm
Nov 9 - Typhoon Lagoon all day, possibly Disney Springs in the evening.
Nov 10 - Rest in the morning, MVMCP in the evening.
Nov 11 - Islands of Adventure all day
Nov 12 - Animal Kingdom all day, packing that evening.
Nov 13 - Fly home

I have a few other things to finish - a couple of adjustments to my dresses (a few hours in total of sewing, maybe), but my skirts and our costumes are all finished. I still have to style Belle's wig, but I'll do that the day of the party when I am wearing it.

 

[P&L@WDW]

It's finally here! T minus 20 hours and counting. I'm not sure if anyone is even still looking at this thread, but I had to post one last update, just so I have some closure for myself, haha.

We fly out in the morning. Our luggage is all packed, our carry on's are ready, and we are checked in with the airline!

I just have to make it through work today (only another 5 hours!) and then Jared and I are off to my parents. It's a 3 hour drive away - we're flying out of their local airport to save a bit of time and money. They are going to watch our dog, and drive us to the airport in the morning.

After months of anticipation, I am so thrilled it's here. I need this vacation badly - bring on the magic!

 

[msk]

I have so enjoyed your thread and I'm looking forward to trying to locate you at MVMCP. If I see you, I will be the crazy old lady who says hi. We arrive on 11/5 so I share your excitement. Have a wonderful vacation, I know you are going to enjoy every minute!