We're Going Home! June 2023 PTR (Updated 5/11)

[nemolover22]

Hi Everyone

Welcome to our June 2023 PTR!!! I haven't wrote a TR since 2013 so it's been 10 years, I can't believe it. If you read my first and only TR from 2013, welcome back and I have lots to catch you up on. Before I get into the details of our upcoming trip, let me fill you in on what all has happened in these past 10 years.

I have completed two DCPs, one PI, and have worked at WDW full time until Covid happened. I could go on and on about my time working at Disney, so if you ever want more details about it please let me know but for now let me give you the basics.

In 2014, I got accepted for the Fall Advantage DCP in Walt Disney World where I worked QSFB at Caribbean Beach Resort and at the Food & Wine Festival. After that, I wasn't ready to go home quite yet so I extended my program into the spring where I was a Merchandise cast member at Epcot Future World (Art of Disney, Pin Central (RIP), Club Cool, Test Track, & Mission Space). After that college program, I decided to come back home and get my degree in Hospitality Management to hopefully be able to come back down to Disney. In 2018, I started my second DCP at Walt Disney World after graduation where I worked as a Vacation Planner in the spring at Hollywood Studios. Then, I accepted a Professional Internship position in my dream role as a Guest Relations Hostess at Disney Hollywood Studios where I was then offered a job and worked there until 2020. I was a part of the opening team of Toy Story Land and Galaxy's Edge. These were some crazy times but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I was also trained as a Star Wars Guided Tour Guide where I did tours until they closed when Galaxy's Edge opened.


Working at Disney, I found my prince charming and we got married in 2020. What was supposed to be a big wedding in Florida, turned into a wedding with just 10 people in my small town in PA but I wouldn't change it for anything. Of course, we had to still incorporate Disney into our wedding.

When COVID happened, it completely turned our world upside down. I never got my job back and DH got called back to Disney to work in a different role. We made the difficult decision to move to my hometown in PA to find new jobs and start our happily ever after there. We have now been here for almost 3 years where we both have stable jobs, own a home, and added a furbaby to our family (Shellie May)

We haven't been to WDW since 2021 where we went on a week long family vacation with my family so we have been MISSING it! We are excited to be going this June with DH's parents who live in Boston so we are excited to spend this time with them.

Our trip is planned for June 4-June 11 where we will be staying at Disney's Riviera Resort. We are so excited about this because we have never stayed there and this will be a resort off our bucket list! DH and I have a goal to stay at every WDW resort & we were able to accomplish quite a few while we were working down there.

The exciting part of our trip is that my family will be flying down to WDW on June 9 so we are planning to have a big family Disney park day all together on June 10.

Please stay tuned as I update you on our airfare plans, ticket purchase, and dining reservations.

Thanks for following along


​

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[nemolover22]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks for following along!

 

[nemolover22]

WHEN AIRFARE IS CHEAPER A DAY EARLIER, YOU BOOK IT!!!

I have some exciting news....we booked our airfare this week! That just makes everything feel more real. So originally we were going to leave on June 4th but then all of a sudden our airfare went up out of nowhere. We saw that leaving the night before after DH gets off work, would save us $50 each. We talked it over and decided it would be worth it if we could find a cheap hotel. We start looking at the All Star Resorts and they were around $170 for one night and we were looking at hotels near Disney Springs which were around the same price. Then, we talked to DH's parents and they looked at their DVC points and said we could use them to stay at Old Key West. Well, that made it a no brainer so now we are getting there on June 3!!!

To make things even better, DH's best friend who works at WDW said he would pick us up from the airport that night so it's a win-win.

Another change of plans and update, my family is planning on getting there a day early too! There is 7 of them arriving together and they wanted to get there on June 8th but my mom has to work on June 9th so they were planning on flying in VERY late on June 9th. Well, their airfare sky rocketed too and they saw how expensive it was going to be for them to all fly on a Friday night so they started looking at other options. They saw that they could rent a SUV or a Van for less than $300 for one way to get to Florida. Well, now they are thinking of renting a SUV van here and driving down through the night on June 8. My mom works from home so she is going to work in the car and at the resort so they should get there before lunchtime on June 9!

I don't know about you but booking airfare and getting plans finalized makes me even more excited!! Now we are counting down until we purchase our tickets and can book dining​

 

[nemolover22]

92 DAYS!!!
Only 92 days until our trip, I can hardly believe it! Sorry to not have been on here with an update in over a month but that's because I don't have much to update on at the moment.

We are planning to purchase our park tickets this month so that we can make our park reservations. The plan is to purchase the 5dph military salute tickets and this should leave us with 2 full rest days during our trip. This makes me excited because as much as I love the parks, we have really started to love exploring our resort and taking days to relax or hit up Disney Springs (I can't wait for Gideon's Cookies).

We can't book our dining reservations until the first week of April. We have a problem though...THERE ARE TOO MANY RESTAURANTS TO CHOOSE FROM!!

After living in Orlando, DH & I have so many favorite restaurants and we want to visit them all but we also want to try new restaurants. I don't want to spend too much money on Disney food but at the same time we haven't been in 2 years so we need to take advantage. The struggle is real! Here is a list of restaurants we are considering (yes, the list is long) so please let me know your thoughts to help narrow down our decision!

-The Boathouse (been missing those filet mignon sliders)
-Chef Art Smith Homecoming (new restaurant for DH parents)
-Raglan Road (DH parents fav)
-Space 220 (new one we all want to try)
-Sci Fi Dine In Fantasmic Package (considering it only for the seats for Fant)
-Trattoria al Forno breakfast (new one we all want to try since staying at Riviera)
-Crystal Palace (considering it because I want a hug from Pooh and friends)
-Steakhouse 71 (my family loves this restaurant and constantly raves about it)
-Beaches & Cream (family favorite and on the cheaper side)
-Olivias Cafe (DH & I's favorite when we lived there)

See...it's too long of a list unless we win the lottery and can spend all of it on Disney food haha!

Hopefully next time I have an update, we have park tickets booked! For now, please give us advice on where to eat haha!
​

 

[Paulaparm]

I'm probably not much help, but I know I definitely want to get to Crystal Palace next trip. We've always loved that breakfast. I also really want to try Steakhouse 71, based on what everyone is saying about it!

 

[nemolover22]

I'm probably not much help, but I know I definitely want to get to Crystal Palace next trip. We've always loved that breakfast. I also really want to try Steakhouse 71, based on what everyone is saying about it!

I've heard great things about Crystal Palace breakfast also, especially about the churro mickey waffles they have! I would love to try those. My family went to Disney last year and loved Steakhouse 71 so much that they booked it again before they left to get 2 meals.

 

[nemolover22]

TRIP UPDATE

Hello humans
Sorry that I've been MIA! March was a very busy month and I can't believe tomorrow will be April. I can't believe it which means our trip is just about 2 months away! We did finally purchase our Disney tickets and make park reservations so here is the plan so far. Also, we found out that we could pay $30 each to change our flight to get there early afternoon instead of late evening, so what did we do? We changed our flight of course!! Now we will be landing at 3:10pm instead of 10pm which makes a big difference and gives us time to actually enjoy Old Key West.

Here are the tentative plans we have for now with our park reservations but of course all of this could change when we make our dining reservations next week:

6/3 - Arrival day and have dinner at Disney Springs
6/4 - Animal Kingdom
6/5 - Hollywood Studios and park hopping to Epcot in the evening
6/6 - Rest Day
6/7 - Magic Kingdom
6/8 - Epcot
6/9 - Rest Day
6/10 - Hollywood Studios
6/11 - Leave

We have some hard dining reservations that we are hoping to get like Space 220, Toppolino's Breakfast, and Homecoming for a party of 11 but fingers crossed it all works out. We can make our dining in less than a week so stay tuned to see what we get and how much our plans change.​

 

[nemolover22]

DINING IS BOOKED!!!

This week, we got to book our Disney dining and now the trip feels so close! We got every restaurant we wanted just had to switch some times/days around. Here is what the dining is as of now:

6/3 - Boathouse dinner
6/5 - Toppolinos breakfast, Oga's Cantina, Via Napoli dinner
6/6 - Raglan Road dinner
6/7 - Crystal Palace late breakfast
6/8 - Space 220 dinner
6/9 - Chef Art Smith Homecomin late lunch
6/10 - Mama Melrose dinner with the Fantasmic package

We are pretty happy with these selections so I'm glad everything worked out!

We are in between either doing a fireworks dessert party or the up close with rhinos tour. If you have done either of those, please let me know your thoughts! I'm more leaning towards the rhino tour because we loved the Animal Kingdom show on Disney+ but there is no availability currently.

Also, I need some advice regarding transportation from the airport to the resort. Originally my in laws were going to stay with DH brother in New Smryna beach and drive to Disney & pick us up. Well his brother just got a new job opportunity in Boston and will have to move there before our trip. So now they will be flying down the same day we fly and we will have no car. We are trying to decide between a town car, one of the bus options, or just taking an Uber. Our flight to go home is at 7am so if we do the bus we don't really want to be picked up at 4am on our departure day. Please let me know your thoughts!

I can't believe our trip is less than 2 months away​

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Great lineup! I love Raglan Road, but my picky eater husband wouldn't be interested. I think the Fantasmic dining package is a great idea. For transportation, we're likely going to choose Mears Connect or Sunshine Flyer. If you don't want to do an early pickup, you can always use Uber both ways or you could use Mears/Sunshine Flyer as a one-way on arrival and then Uber on the way back to the airport.

 

[nemolover22]

Great lineup! I love Raglan Road, but my picky eater husband wouldn't be interested. I think the Fantasmic dining package is a great idea. For transportation, we're likely going to choose Mears Connect or Sunshine Flyer. If you don't want to do an early pickup, you can always use Uber both ways or you could use Mears/Sunshine Flyer as a one-way on arrival and then Uber on the way back to the airport.

I'm a very picky eater myself, but my husband's family loves Raglan! I usually get a plain chicken breast (similar to a rotisserie) with mashed potatoes and it's delicious.

We actually found a really good deal on a rental car that would be a little more than airport transportation so we got a rental for the full week!

 

[nemolover22]

23 DAYS!!!

I can't believe we are only 23 days away from our trip! We are so excited and really hoping that this month flies by.

I've been planning my outfits for the trip and purchasing shirts off Etsy that I cannot wait to wear. The biggest update I have is last time we were trying to decide if we should add a special experience or not. Well, we did add one and I am so so so excited for it. We are doing....THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER DESSERT PARTY

I have always wanted to do a fireworks dessert party and with Happily Ever After being back we figured now is the best time. We surprised my in laws with it as a way to celebrate their 50th anniversary and to celebrate my mother in law's bday which is just a few days after our trip. We decided on the post party so we will enjoy the fireworks in the hub grass and then eat all the desserts after. We picked the night where we would be in MK for extended evening hours so that the dessert will give us energy to stay in MK all night. I cannot wait to update you all during our trip report on how we enjoyed the dessert party.

With our trip coming up so soon, I'm not sure if I will have any other updates before then. If I don't post any other updates, I'll at least leave a link for when I start the trip report! Thank you all for following along​

 

[erinch]

Just read your PTR! Cannot wait for the adventure!

 

[nemolover22]

Hey everyone! I just started my trip report for this trip and you can read about it here