My name is Jamee. I'm 16 years old and a complete Disney addict (obviously...) I am also a proud Disney World Annual Pass Holder! So when my friend Taylor asked me if I wanted to go to Disney with her in June, of corse I jumped on that chance! My favorite park is Magic Kingdom (duh!) but closely followed by Hollywood Studios! Even though I've been to Disney alot this trip is about many firsts for me, including... my first stay in a Disney Hotel!! Which I am SOOOOO excited for!!!! Additionally its my first time on the dining plan so I can't wait to try some new places, in addition to some of my favorites...
This is me at Disney last December...
I'm on the right, and my sister is on the left.
Which brings me to the thread title, last summer my sister and her best friend (who is practically my sister) moved to Tampa, so ever since then I've been visiting quite often So I get alot of "AGAIN!" when I tell people I'm going away
Anyway, my sister and her friend are my normal Disney travelers and I pretty sure they are gonna come and spend some days with us on this trip!
More on them later...
So the other travelers on this trip are Taylor, our other friend Jackie, Taylor's sister and Taylor's dad... Sorry I don't have any pictures of them...
Taylor and her family have been to Disney before but not for awhile (I think she said their last time was in 2005). She loves it, but I'm not sure if she's really a total Disney freak... I might have to change that
As for Jackie, she's never be to Disney before!!! I'm so excited about this!!! I absolutely love taking new people to Disney and experiencing it for the first time again with them! I hope she really enjoys it and appreciates all the Disney-ness of it... I really don't like people who just say its another theme park
So how this trip came up...
Our school is running a trip to Greece this summer and I really wanted to go. I knew I wouldn't go without my friends though. So I asked Taylor and she said she'd love to but she knew her dad wouldn't let her, but she would try.
I went out to dinner with her and her dad one day when she brought it up to him. He said no but he would take us anywhere else in exchange... so we brainstormed for awhile but then we came up with DISNEY WORLD! Of corse, I jumped all over that suggestion and BAM! we decided we were going!!!
Some changes have been made since that original day. Originally our other friend was supposed to come too but unfortunately she couldn't which is the one sad part of this story.
Also, we originally planned to drive down, but now we are flying! THANK GOD! I am not good with cars in the first place (think... baaaddd carsick ) and from where we live it is about a 18 drive, which also takes time away from WDW. Now, I have no problem with flying because I have done it alot in my 16 years, (my dad flies alot for work so I have been blessed to fly many places from a young age thanks to his reward miles). I had no idea that Taylor has an insane fear of flying so she wasn't very happy, Jackie has never flown before so she has no idea what to expect...
Now on to the actual trip,
Our dates are June 11-17 and we are staying at
The Caribbean Beach Resort!!!
This wasn't really our first choice, but we are really excited anyway!!! And we probably won't be in the room too often.
I've kind of taken control of planning for the trip and I've been trying to perfect our schedule for weeks! Our basic touring plan is casual plans, this is not the type of group to adhere to a strict schedule but I want a loose plan of what parks to go to on what day. I think I've finally found the perfect balanced park plan! I'll share that in the next update!
I'm trying to make sure we take good use of the EMH, especially evening ones in our case...
Another thing I'm trying to avoid is being in the parks midday since it is JUNE! I went in June two years ago and I remember being soooo HOT! So I fully plan on taking a ton of afternoon breaks.
Finally, ADRs! We have been planning this trip for awhile now but we only booked YESTERDAY! With only 80 days left until our trip I'm a little worried we aren't going to get anything. But I was on the WDW Dining site this morning and our dream restaurants are mostly still available, we just need to be a little flexible. But I really hope we can schedule them soon!
So in the intro I already mentioned that we were originally going to drive down but we decided to fly instead. A fact that I was very happy about.
Ideally, we would've loved to get an early flight going down and a later flight coming home, but that didn't work out.
We have a small airport by our houses that has basically one direct flight to Orlando every day from Airtran (sadly due to the Southwest/Airtran merger this flight will no longer be available but now I'm hearing that another airline may be thinking about replacing it... hopefully!) anyway!
The Airtran flight gets us in at 5:15 on June 11, which isn't great but still gives us enough time to enjoy that night.
The flight coming home however isn't so great, it leaves MCO at 11:30 in the morning, so the ME pickup is 8:30. I realize this isn't awful or crack of dawn, but we can't go to a park or even do one last breakfast... but we'll manage!!
I would've liked to look out of the two bigger airports near us to get more flexible flights and a better deal but Taylor's family pretty much was set on these. I understand why, it is really nice to fly from the small airport.
So thats the plans for Taylor's family and Jackie... who am I missing...
Oh yea... ME!
So why aren't I flying with them??? Long story...
When we originally planned the trip I planned to stay after they left with my sister for a few days, because of this I told Taylor I'd take care of my own flights. I wanted to fly down with them so I checked the prices. Originally the one way flight was only $108. I wish I would've booked it then...
Now, we finally booked the trip the other day and when I went to check the flight, its up to $333!!! I am willing to pay alot of money for many things, but flights are not one of them... I normally hunt airports all over and check many different times and days, etc in order to find a good deal. I think it would quite literally kill me to pay that for a ONE WAY flight, I normally wouldn't even consider that for a round trip ticket.
Now, I know that they invited me and as their guest I should suck it up and take that flight, but I just can't justify that... So I'm going to keep checking the Airtran site to see if it goes down.
In the meantime I do need a way to get there. So I went on my trusty United site and found a flight where I can use my dad's miles. There is a flight that gets in about 10 minutes after theirs and one that gets in about an hour before, I'm not sure which to take... I could probably get there a little after and still get to DME before them because I am very used to MCO. Or I can get there before and have time to relax, then sit and wait for them either at their gate (if we were in the same terminal) or right outside the mini monorail...
UGH! I don't know! I just really want the price of the Airtran flight to go down!!! I'm going to keep watching it, because we can get a full refund on the miles flight. I know its silly but I really want to be on that flight because I feel like thats the start of the vacation and I don't want to be left out of it! I love flying with my friends because its so exciting and we are so excited to get there, but the flight is fun too! Getting there is half the fun (side note: does anyone remember that Mary Kate and Ashley movie called Getting There where they went to the Olympics or something... I blame them for me wanting to go on this flight so bad!)
Either way, once we get there the flight won't even matter, we'll be off to find DME and then off to CBR where our vacation begins!
As for my flight home, I have no idea when/where that will be, so I will keep you update on that as it comes.
Woah, this update on planes that I thought would be extremely short ended up going on forever, sorry about my rambling!!
For the past three months I have been working to get a perfect park schedule, and every time I think I have a great one, I think of something else and I change it... but now I think I have it! This will probably change sometime over the next three months but until then... our park schedule!!!
Let me know what you think or any ideas!
Monday June 11:
Flight Arrives at MCO at 5:15 P.M
Night: Hollywood Studios
Fantasmic at 9 P.M
EMH until 12 A.M.
Tuesday June 12:
Morning: Magic Kingdom
Opens at 9 A.M
Parade at 3 P.M
Night: Epcot
Fireworks at 9 P.M
EMH until 12 A.M
Wednesday June 13:
Morning: Hollywood Studios
Opens at 9 A.M
Night: Magic Kingdom
Fireworks 10 P.M
EMH until 1 A.M
Thursday June 14:
Morning: Animal Kingdom
Opens at 9 A.M
Night: Epcot
Fireworks at 9 P.M
Friday June 15:
Morning: Hollywood Studios
Opens at 9 A.M
Afternoon: Animal Kingdom
Parade at 3:45 P.M
Night: Downtown Disney
Saturday June 16:
Morning: Epcot
Night: Magic Kingdom
Fireworks at 10 P.M
Sunday June 17:
Magical Express Pickup at 8:50 A.M
Finally! Everyones favorite part of PTRs! We FINALLY made our ADRs tonight! Even though we are wayyy closer than 180 days, we still got everything we wanted... But I feel like these will be changing, possibly as early as tonight!
But for right now here they are:
Tuesday 6/12 - Dinner: Teppan Edo 8:55
Wednesday 6/13 - Dinner: California Grill 9:20
Thursday 6/14 - Dinner: Coral Reef 4:15
Friday 6/15 - Breakfast: Cape May Cafe 10:30
Saturday 6/16 - ??
Saturday is the only day we didn't book. We can't decide between Chefs de France and Via Napoli, we do know that it will be lunch in Epcot though... any suggestions???
Looking forward to reading more of your plans! I'll be in disney a few weeks before you and I just started my PTR also. My bestfriend and I went last Jan and had a great time, you are so lucky to be able to go with your friends! Your park plans look great!
Yup, I knew it... we ended up changing around our ADRs last night. Not so much change them rather than switch around the days.
On Saturday the plan is to go to Epcot in the morning and just do FW, so it made no sense when we could just eat at Coral Reef for lunch rather than going all the way back to WS.
So the new plans are:
6/12 - Les Chefs de France 5:50
6/13 - California Grill 9:20
6/14 - Teppan Edo 8:00
6/15 - Cape May Cafe 10:30
6/16 - Coral Reef 12:45
Wow! I have been MIA for like two weeks! Sorry bout that!!! But I have good reason, last week I went to Florida for Easter for a week! And then I got home and had to get all caught up on schoolwork but now I finally have time to update. Since there's nothing new about our trip yet, I am going to start working on the individual days probably after this update, I thought I'd give a short TR about my recent trip!
It wasn't an actual trip to Disney, instead it was a trip to visit my sisters for the holiday in Tampa. But I was alone with them in Tampa for the first half of the trip because our parents went to Key West, so obviously we spent one of those days in Disney!!!
For this day trip we decided to go to Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We had just recently gone to Hollywood Studios when I went for Spring Break in March and we always go to Magic Kingdom. Poor AK never gets any day trip love, and I wanted to go to Epcot to see the F&G festival and ride Test Track once more before they redo it. So I will post the first part of that day trip in a little bit because the pictures are uploading now!
We arrived in AK around 2 in the afternoon. As soon as we entered the park we checked the new iPhone Mobile Magic app, that I am in LOVE with, to see where to go. We ended up getting FPs for Dinosaur with a return time of 2:50 - 3:50.
It was VERY hot out so Gab and I decided to go on Kali River Rapids, the wait was posted at 50 minutes so when we got in line at 2:15 we thought we'd have PLENTY of time to make our FP time...
WRONG! The wait ended up being over an hour and a half!!! We made friends with the people in front of and behind us who also were worried about making their FP time. We called Ashley to talk the people manning the FP area at Dino and explain the situation. (This is where I find fault in the new FP rules... but that is for a different thread) Apparently the girl standing there told her that we wouldn't be able to use them even if we were five minutes late, but her supervisor came over, listened to the situation and said it would be fine.
Gab and I RAN to Dino after KRR (where we didn't even get that wet, so much for cooling off) and thankfully got on no problem. This is one of Gab and Ash's favorite rides. Personally, it still scares me!! We got another set of FPs because they wanted to ride it again!
After Dino we wanted a snack, so we found a small stand where I got this baby...
And this was it after I gave up:
Man that was good... I didn't even come close to finishing it!!
After our snack we checked the app and found that Everest was only 40 minutes, we hoped this would be an accurate time so we went for it.
The line really only did take 40 minutes, so it was good! The time also passed fast because we found things in the queue that sparked conversation:
It's hard to see in this picture but we thought this shirt looked like the Silver Monkeys from Legends of The Hidden Temple!
Yes, we are definitely children of the 90s! Does anyone else remember this show?? And the other classic Nickelodeon game shows? Because we started talking about all of them: Legends, GUTS, Double Dare (Original and 2000)... yup that was definitely an interesting conversation!
Then we saw this and started talking about whether we think the Yeti is real:
Which led to us googling the Loch Ness Monster on our phones....
So yea, before we knew it we were on the ride!
I LOVE EVEREST! It was one of the first coasters I ever went on! I always forget how intense the backwards part is! And I really love it because its not just a ride, there's a storyline to it, like all Disney rides... which is what makes it better than regular amusement parks!
After Everest, we headed back over to Dinosaur to use our FPs, no problems this time! Then, even though we love all the shows in AK (especially FotLK and Bugs Life) we decided to leave and head over to Epcot!!
All weekend I hung out with Jackie and of course we talked about Disney the whole time! We are getting so excited! We realized that we were under two months away!!!
Continuing with my mini-TR...
When I left off we were leaving AK to go to Epcot!
When we walked in we saw this! Yay for the F&G Festival!!!
This ended up being the only F&G that we saw. I really wanted to see more but we mostly stayed in the one area of the park because we were getting tired. Plus it got dark pretty quickly and we wouldn't have been able to see them anyway. I'm a little upset I missed them but that just gives me a reason to go back next spring!
When we got to Epcot we were pretty hungry. First I checked to see if there were any FPs left for anything and there were some for Mission Space. I went over to grab some while Gab and Ash got in line for food.
We ended up eating at the Electric Umbrella, which I just realized that I don't think I've ever eaten at before this... new experiences! I was quite fine with this choice because I am a picky eater.
Sorry I don't have any pictures! I know that I got chicken nuggets, and coming from me (a self-proclaimed chicken expert) thought they were delicious! Haha!
After dinner we went to ride this baby before it gets redone.
I LOVELOVELOVE TEST TRACK!!!! It is my FAVORITE ride in ALL of Disney World!!!! I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO UPSET when I found out it would be closed during our June trip!!!!!! So I had to ride it!!! There is nothing better than the outside part of that ride!!! The wind in your face! AAHH!!! I smile just thinking about it!!!
We rode single rider because stand-by was 70 minutes. The wait for singles was posted at 20 minutes, but it only took us about 15! The single rider line is so hit or miss, we went back later and it said 25 minutes but the line was out the door. The only thing I didn't like was that they normally have the preshow playing on a loop because they don't keep the single riders in the room, but they didn't play it I love that video and they are probably gonna change it, and I didn't get to see it one last time... Oh well, I still got to go on my favorite ride!
I had the cutest little kids in my car! LOVE little kids in Disney!!!
Story alert! So I drive a 2002 Chevy Cavalier that my sister drove when she turned sixteen 9 years ago, then my brother had it, and now its mine. It really is in very good shape for being old but I love it anyway! It often gets made fun of because people think it could break any second... Now to the point of the story, right before you leave the building and go to the outside part of the ride, they have a bunch of demolished cars on display... Yup, one of those was a Cavalier, same color as mine and all! So now that totaled version has given everyone more reason to make fun of my car! Haha!
The line for TT was shorter than we thought so we still had time before our MS FPs, but the standby line for Green was only 5 minutes so we just rode. I like that ride, but its not my favorite. My favorite part is playing with all the buttons! I sit there and play with them the whole ride and I take my part of pressing the big buttons very seriously (I was the pilot this time, thats my favorite!)
Ashley and I rode with an older couple. The woman thought her husband tricked her onto the intense side, so to calm her down I told her that it was definitely the mild side because I would never be on the other one.
After MS, we tried to find someone to give our FPs to, but we couldn't, so I left them on the garbage can, hopefully someone got to use them!
We stopped in Mousegears to do some shopping. I bought Mickey Rice Krispie Treats for my friends (they are obsessed with them!) and the silver sparkly Mickey ear for Jackie's birthday. I wanted to get her the pink ones but I couldn't find them, plus, the bow on the pink ones is kind of obnoxious... her birthday is a week before we leave in June so of course she's getting a Disney themed present. I don't know what else to get her though, I'm gonna look for a Tshirt and a small Mickey stuffed toy, or maybe I'll get her a Disney Gift Card to use on the trip, any suggestions???
After shopping it was about 8:15 and we decided to leave so we could avoid the post-fireworks crowds and traffic.
On the way home, about five minutes after leaving Disney I always see this and I think its so cool but I always forget to take a picture, so I made sure I was ready this time!
We got back to Tampa around 9:30, its exactly an hour, I soaked my feet partly because they hurt and partly because they were dirty. Then I think we watched American Idol before crashing in bed thanks to our long day!
Thanks for reading my mini-TR! I'll be back, either later tonight, maybe tomorrow, or worst case tuesday, with another update on the June trip PTR!!!!
Wow, I've really slacked on this PTR... I really need to do better! So I am avoiding studying for my AP exam tomorrow so I am going to do an update!
Not much has changed since the last update, I've started making the plans for each day so here they are....
Before leaving, since the two weeks before we leave are CRAZY busy for me especially the weekend right before we leave, I will probably still have some last minute packing and stuff to do. After getting that done I will go get a mani/pedi and maybe stop by Taylor's to make sure they are all ready.
Flight 1 (me) - My flight is at 1:20 and the airport is about an hour away, so I will probably have to leave by 11 AM, I'll get to the airport, do all the airporty stuff. Once through security I'll stop and find some berry flavored gum that I probably forgot to buy before I left and some People and Us Weekly magazines... Then on the flight I have my playlist of Disney songs and I will probably watch the Modern Family season one episode of when they are in the airport going to Hawaii (I've been watching that episode on airplanes or at airports or before vacation since it aired)...
Once I get to the airport at 4:00 I'll have about an hour until their flight lands. I will probably try and find the Chick-Fil-A that I have never been able to find in MCO (I love my Chick! Going without it for a whole week will be rough... but I know that it will be replaced by AMAZING disney food!!! AH! Almost just had a panic when I thought I was flying in on Sunday and Chick would be closed, but its not, its a tuesday, no worries). Then I'll probably look around the Disney gift shop to get in the mood (as if I'll need to get any more excited!!!!)
Once their plane lands we will get to ME and go to CBR!!! VACATION HAS BEGUN!!!
The plan for that night is DHS because they have EMH! The plan is to go to the park right after checking in and get some dinner at PIZZA PLANET (crazy Toy Story fan here!) before going to Fantasmic (which might just not be in the cards, we'll play it by ear)
We don't have any definite plans because the lines during EMH are so various... we'll check and see if any rides have short lines and if not we'll just soak up the atmosphere... Since it will be our first night we'll definitely be staying until the end of EMH (midnight). But then we will be rushing back to CBR to get a good nights sleep before our early morning and first full day in DISNEY!!!!!!!!!!
In other news, this past monday was FIVE WEEKS! Taylor, Jackie, and I kept playing the "exactly five weeks from now..." game! This continued throughout the school day and then after school through Facebook, text, and twitter.... yea, we are pretty excited!
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So I get alot of "AGAIN!" when I tell people I'm going away 
which is the one sad part of this story. 
) and from where we live it is about a 18 drive, which also takes time away from WDW. Now, I have no problem with flying because I have done it alot in my 16 years, (my dad flies alot for work so I have been blessed to fly many places from a young age thanks to his reward miles). I had no idea that Taylor has an insane fear of flying so she wasn't very happy, Jackie has never flown before so she has no idea what to expect...
but now I'm hearing that another airline may be thinking about replacing it... hopefully!) anyway! 
(I was the pilot this time, thats my favorite!)
