Wait, how many days are left??? The shortest PTR you'll ever read!

[disneyhousewife]

Hello everyone! ​

I'm back on the DIS after a long hiatus and I have been meaning to do a PTR. Even though I'm super excited for my upcoming trip but life has gotten in the way of planning. I've gotten married, there was a bit of family drama, we started packing for a move, we ended up not moving the husband got accepted to grad school , my brother got engaged...but things are FINALLY settling down and I can finally fully plan this trip!

But this morning I woke up to this:

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WHAAAT?? My life actually managed to get in the way of Disney planning?? I am both very, very excited and very, very worried! So now I'm going to have to finish planning this thing in a week? Challenge accepted!

So first: let's do some introductions. The husband and I are very camera shy, so I'll show you our magic bands!

The pink one is me (26), the housewife, the organizer, and the homemaker. The green one is my dear husband (27), the social worker, the writer, and the puzzle addict. I'm very short, African-American and quite silly. He is very tall, Jewish, and quite reserved. Yeah, I don't know why we're married either. But, no, I do love him very much. We both love Disney World, of course, and books. We are a couple of nerds, for sure! He took me to my first trip to Disneyland (my first Disney park ever!) for his birthday (because he used to do that when he was younger) and I fell in love! So we are going on this trip for his birthday!

So what's left to plan?​

We have all the basics: the hotel, the Fast Passes, the flights...but we still need a lot as well:

• Quick Service dining: We have made a few ADRs but we still need to figure what quick lunches we can have. We are both vegetarian, so that makes it a little difficult.

• What to do on our "break day": At this point we have nothing planned for our gap day. Just one dining reservation. We have to fill it up with something!

• Shows to watch: Right now, all we have down for sure are Wishes, Illuminations, and Fantasmic. But that is definitely not going to be enough!

• Ride plans: We have our FP+ for every park day, but we need to work out the rest of the rides. We like to make a list of rides and attractions in a tentative order based on what gets busy when.

• Packing?????

• Transportation???????

Um, yeah that's a lot of planning. So, can I do this? Well, I'm going to have to! ​

 

[AAshleySEG]

Good luck!! I know how interesting Disney can be when you are a vegetarian! One of my favorites is the Asian Noodle Salad at Bradley Falls at Animal Kingdom! Here is a little more about it in case you are interested

http://www.disneyhipsters.com/2013/08/food-review-bradley-falls-at-animal.html

The writer of the blog is vegetarian too so it may give you some other quick service ideas? Anyway, I hope you get everything planned and have a great time!!

 

[disneyhousewife]

Good luck!! I know how interesting Disney can be when you are a vegetarian! One of my favorites is the Asian Noodle Salad at Bradley Falls at Animal Kingdom! Here is a little more about it in case you are interested

http://www.disneyhipsters.com/2013/08/food-review-bradley-falls-at-animal.html

The writer of the blog is vegetarian too so it may give you some other quick service ideas? Anyway, I hope you get everything planned and have a great time!!

I love that blog! I read it often! Being a vegetarian makes things slightly complicated. I have to carefully look at every menu and sometimes call about specific dishes. It gets a little tedious!

 

[BudgieMama]

Following along! Good luck with your final countdown and planning!

 

[disneyhousewife]

Hello Everyone!!​

Today I've been working on getting all of our dining in order and I finally finished all of the necessary reservations. I usually plan my trips around what I'm going to eat, because dining takes up so much time when you include getting there, waiting, actual eating, and all of that fun stuff. I added more dining reservations, and I think we're going to end up with more table service than quick service (which is not how I thought it would pan out). But, interestingly enough, there's not a lot of fine dining going on here. This trip is definitely going to be very, very casual. I have everything written out in PDFs so that I can save it on my phone and check it at the park. I'm not really big on using MDE because it sucks so much of my phone battery, and because Disney can have faulty internet. Here's what we have so far:

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We have a few of the tentative prices of the meals for places we haven't been before, just so we have an idea of what we might spend there. Again, very tentative, since menus can change very often. But for now, this is it for all four days. Also, I just spotted a typo on the second page. We are actually going to be park hopping from AK to HS on that day.We also DO have a reservation for Rainforest Cafe!

Later tonight, or tomorrow, I'm going to work on getting some transportation plans going. We are most likely going to rent a car at this point. See you tomorrow! ​

 

[disneyhousewife]

Following along! Good luck with your final countdown and planning!

Hooray! Welcome!

 

[disneyhousewife]

Hello everyone!​

We have a car rental! We're using Alamo and the price was pretty reasonable. It was about $13 a day before fees and tax. I definitely got lucky with finding that deal.

Next on my list was to work on a daily plan and then pack, but I might do that vice versa since today is laundry day for me anyway.

So I thought it might be nice to leave you all with some more background on the trip while I'm off doing that!

Trip Goals! ​

Is it weird to have trip goals? I hope not. We're going for the husband's birthday, so I want it to be extremely special. He is very laid back and doesn't really like all the razzle dazzle of signature dining and the deluxe resorts. I think it makes him feel a little out of his element. He was a beach bum California surfer boy in his bachelor days That's why I picked Riverside, and why we're sticking to casual dining. I've heard that Riverside is laid back, romantic and intimate, which are all things that I want for this trip!

While I'm doing the laundry, I'm going to start mentally making a ride plan. On our last trips we skipped a lot of the super "kiddie" rides. My plan now is to go on those classic rides and relive our childhood a bit! It is Disney World after all! That includes Teacups, Toy Story, Astro Orbiter, Magic Carpets, and Dumbo.

I also am planning to take an afternoon break every day. I've heard good things and bad things about attempting that. Some people think it's a better idea to skip the hotel break and just take small breaks in the parks and some people swear by it. I think we're going to give it a shot this time around!

There aren't that many days left! It's coming up! ​

 

[AAshleySEG]

Love your dining choices! Kona Cafe, Via Napoli, Pizza Planet, are some of our fav stops to eat. You have good taste in restaurants!

 

[disneyhousewife]

Love your dining choices! Kona Cafe, Via Napoli, Pizza Planet, are some of our fav stops to eat. You have good taste in restaurants!

Thank you!! I'm excited!

 

[disneyhousewife]

Roadblocks

Ok, friends. I've hit some problems along the way of planning and was able to get through them. But, there is one big issue that I can't seem to plan. I was stuck trying to figure out what exactly to do on my first day. My flight comes into MCO at 9:00 am, the car pickup is at 9:30 am so that means we will be at the resort way before 11, in time for breakfast. The plan is to be at Magic Kingdom in time to see the afternoon parade, but that's right around when check in is. I was hoping that our check would be a little earlier. But I also really, really want to settle in to the hotel before going to a park, since we're going to be tired from the day. Hopefully we can be at Magic Kingdom by 1:00 pm.

Wishful thinking? Probably. I'm not sure how to plan for this!

 

[disneyhousewife]

Today has been crazy. Here's a life tip, don't ever to plan most of your Disney trip in a week. It will drive you just a little bit insane. I've figured a day plan for the first day we'll be there. I had planned an early, early flight to get there and give us enough time to settle in and enjoy Wishes in the evening, but we also have to go to Target or Winn-Dixie, eat our meals, unpack and all that fun stuff.

Since we're renting a car, transportation will be much, much faster. Google Maps is telling me that it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to get from MCO to Riverside and from Riverside to Target.

I have NO idea if these times are accurate, or if traffic will get in the way. We will be arriving pretty early, so I can't imagine a rush hour. But I would assume that the there will be a lot of people in between an airport and the most visited theme park in the world no doubt about that. So we're going to be skipping breakfast at the Riverside Mill and grabbing something at the airport just to save on time. We were also supposed to be meeting up with friends of ours that will also be at Riverside at the same time as us, but that might not happen with everything going on. I'm going to try and convince them to go to Magic Kingdom and meet us there!

Here is our plan for the first day:

What do you think? It seems pretty straightforward, but it's going to be far from the relaxing first day I wanted it to be. It will still be fun because we'll be in Disney so who cares?? The next couple of days should be easier to plan out, because those will be mostly parks. I have two days left to get everything else ready! Tomorrow everything should be packed up!

 

[CarlaLovesDisney]

Hello to all those who follow this thread! Emma is my dear friend and has asked me to post an update here for her. Her grandmother is not in good condition and she needed to cancel her trip. She will not be on the DIS very much for the next couple weeks, but will definitely be planning a new trip for a few years down the line.