"What do you mean there's a Pixar Fest?" A DL/WDW/USO Pre-Trip Report! Update 7/12!

[DisneyMandC]

Hello everyone!! Welcome back if you’ve ever read any of my previous trip reports!

I can’t believe it, but it is actually time for me to start writing ANOTHER pre-trip report!! I didn’t think this moment would come until 2019, but somehow I’ve managed to sneak not one, but TWO, Disney trips into my vacation plans, plus a trip to Universal Studios Orlando! More on that later…

In case you don’t know me from my previous reports, here’s a little refresher!





DH and I have been married for three years (next week!) and had our honeymoon at WDW, staying at AKL. This was our first on-site, full Disney bubble trip together!



Our next Disney trip was to Disneyland for the first time EVER in January 2016! We just had one day tickets to DL while we were visiting LA, but had a great time!



Last year we were somehow lucky enough to squeeze in a quick three day trip to WDW over the summer! We spent three days at Pop Century (our first stay at a value resort!) and visited AK, MK, and Disney Springs.

A couple of my Disney favorites include:

Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge

Park: Magic Kingdom (quintessential Disney)

Ride: Space Mountain… buuuuut Flight of Passage is a really, really close second!

Restaurant: Le Cellier

Snack: Literally anything chocolate

Movie: Fantasia (classic) and Beauty and the Beast (modern) and Up! (Pixar)

Souvenirs: Pins and Christmas ornaments (me), Starbucks cups (him)

Other Disney fans in our house include our dog, Russell Fredricksen, our own personal homage to the movie Up!



Russell’s favorite part of Disney World is when we bring him home big fluffy stuffed animals that he can carry around and abandon in our front yard before enthusiastically finding them again.

So what’s on the agenda for trips this year? Here’s a sneak peek until the next update…



Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure! July 29-31


Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party! November 8 (opening night!)


Hollywood Studios! November 9


Universal Studios Orlando! November 10 and 11​

 

[Ngwira]

I'm here and following along . Excited for you.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm here and following along . Excited for you.

Thank you!! We're so excited for this trip! We were talking about it over lunch today and looking up all the different snacks we want to buy.

 

[Ngwira]

Thank you!! We're so excited for this trip! We were talking about it over lunch today and looking up all the different snacks we want to buy.

View attachment 314740

My birthday is July 29th... hope you have so much fun on your trip. Have a dole whip for me!

 

[DisneyMandC]

My birthday is July 29th... hope you have so much fun on your trip. Have a dole whip for me!

Whaaaaat... we're twins!

 

[Ngwira]

Whaaaaat... we're twins!

Omg.... really?? What.....that’s nuts!!! Leo in the house

 

[DisneyMandC]

Omg.... really?? What.....that’s nuts!!! Leo in the house

Funnily enough, my brother's birthday is also July 29 but we're not twins. He was born 12 years before me

 

[DisneyMandC]

“Darn it, we are going on a vacation!”

Two Disney trips in one year is VERY unusual for us (actually we’ve never done it), and we started out this year not even thinking we’d go on one Disney trip this year! We’ve been saving up to take our parents and DH’s brother on a trip to WDW in Fall 2019, so we figured we would skip Disney World this year. We DEFINITELY did not have plans to go all the way out to Disneyland! So how did this happen? Well, let’s start in reverse chronological order with our November WDW/USO trip!

So back in February, we had plans to take a trip to Miami, FL. This was three day work trip for DH who would be attending a conference there, but I’m allowed to tag along (obviously paying my own airfare, meals, etc.). I was SO EXCITED for this trip to sunny Florida in what had otherwise been a miserable cold winter! DH’s work was putting him up at a super fancy hotel and I had booked my airfare and was already to relax by this fantastic pool.



UNTIL DH’S WORK CANCELED HIS TRIP FOUR DAYS AHEAD OF TIME.



I was seriously so upset, I sat in my car at work and cried a little bit. It wasn’t DH’s fault at all, but something came up and work told him he couldn’t go to the conference. Our only trip to Florida for the year was busted. DH could tell I was really upset, and he was of course bummed too. So he did the only thing that he knew would make me feel better…

He told me to book us a Disney vacation!



Funnily enough, I actually resisted this idea of a Disney vacation at first. I know, right? Shun me from these boards, I’m out of control. But I was really thinking that I wanted to save our money for 2019 and that since we had seen Pandora last year, there wasn’t much this year that I felt the need to see at Disney (more on how that changes later)

So instead I started booking us a Universal trip to coincide with DH’s birthday in November! Or near it anyways, since his birthday coincides with Thanksgiving break and you could not PAY ME to go near Orlando at that time of year!



DH and I have been to Universal once back in 2008, back when we were mere babies! (Ok, we were 19). We had a great time but I honestly can’t remember much of it. Also, WWOHP was not open when we went and I LOVE Harry Potter! I remember they had a lot of walls up from where they were building it, but I think it would be another 6 months or so before it actually opened. So ten years seemed like a long enough break from USO and it was time to go back!

SO, the original plan was this:

Drive down to Orlando (10ish hours) on a Thursday, November 8, and stay at a hotel near USO. Go to Disney Springs that evening for dinner/shopping for a little taste of Disney. Spend Friday and Saturday at USO. Drive home Sunday. Yay, great long weekend!

And then a couple things happened…

Well, first off I realized that it was Veteran’s Day weekend and since I’m a government employee, I get “Veteran’s Day” off that Monday, the 12th. So yay, even longer weekend and we can check out some other stuff in Orlando like outlets and then drive home on Monday!

And then Disney announced that they were opening Toy Story Land on June 30, 2018… when DH found out he immediately said “I want to go to Hollywood Studios for the day to see it.” Well, you don’t have to twist my arm! Plus now I didn’t feel like we were “wasting” time/money at WDW since there would be something new to see. Plus, I haven’t ridden ToT or Rock N Roller Coaster in OVER THREE YEARS WHICH IS A TRAVESTY.

Ok, so we’re all set now right… we’ll drive down Thursday, go to Hollywood Studios Friday, USO on Saturday and Sunday, drive home Monday.

Oh wait, what’s that you say? Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party starts November 8? And we haven’t been in ten years?



Well I mean, obviously we just have to go to that!! And if we’re going to be at MK the night of Nov. 8 for the party and then go to HS the next day, I mean, doesn’t it just make sense to book a hotel at WDW so you’re right there and don’t have to Uber back and forth from over near USO?



And since it’s your DH’s 30th birthday, you have to splurge on where you’re going to stay…



We’ve wanted to stay at either Boardwalk, Beach Club, or Yacht Club for a long time, so we’re very excited about our stay! That being said, Beach Club still isn’t set in stone for us. We’re still waiting on fall room discounts to come out, so honestly we’re going to pick whichever of these three ends up being the cheapest for a one night stay. Actually, the only reason we’re booked at Beach Club Villas as opposed to just a regular Beach Club room is because the villas were cheaper for a one night stay than a room at Beach Club!

It was while on the phone booking our one night at Beach Club Villas that I realized that, despite my best(?) efforts, this has now turned into a full blown Disney vacation.



So anyways, here’s the grand scale view of the WDW portion of our trip!

Transportation: Leave home (Virginia) Wednesday night and drive halfway and stay overnight in a hotel. Get up early Thursday morning and finish driving to WDW (hopefully arriving by 11 AM!)

Hotel: Currently a studio at Beach Club Villas.

Parks: MVMCP on November 8. HS on November 9. Maybe squeeze in a little time at Disney Springs before MVMCP? Or just check out the resort more. Depends on what time we get there.

Checkout November 9 and drive to a hotel near USO (TBD!).




​

 

[pblack]

I love all the memes/gifs you use. You're gonna have a blast at Disneyland! (And WDW/HSO!)

 

[DisneyMandC]

I love all the memes/gifs you use. You're gonna have a blast at Disneyland! (And WDW/HSO!)

Thank you! Ugh need to update this so bad... maybe today I'll get time!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Updates on Hotels

Hello all, I’m back! Sorry for the long delay in writing, it’s just been a very busy time at work.

I’ve still been productive about working on my trip to find the best options though! As I hinted earlier, I did end up changing our stay at WDW. Uhh… twice, in fact.

After adding in both the MVMCP (which I now have two tickets for!) and HS on that Friday, I told DH I thought it might be best to stay two nights at Disney. We won’t be leaving HS until late that Friday night, so honestly I don’t really want to get in my car and drive over to wherever we’ll stay by USO and check in there. Much easier to just go back to our same Disney resort! Plus, who doesn’t want two nights at Disney instead of one?

So originally I changed our reservation from one night at Beach Club Villas to two nights Caribbean Beach. I was aware of all of the construction, but since we spend almost no time in our room, I wasn’t too worried about it. Plus, it was the same price for two nights at Caribbean as one night at BCV.

However, recently the fall room discounts for WDW came out and I found an even cheaper option!

So instead of Beach Club Villas OR Caribbean Beach, we are now booked for two nights at…



Coronado Springs!!

I’m pretty excited for this stay since we’ve never been here before! And yes, before anyone says it, I know there is still construction going on here and the pool will be closed when we arrive. But again, we’re not at our room much. Plus the cost of two nights is less than we were paying for one night at BCV!

I’m not positive on where I want to request rooms at yet, so give me your recommendations.

So now that the WDW hotel is squared away (for now), I’ve also picked out my USO hotel!

I really went back and forth on getting a USO hotel onsite, but I just really couldn’t justify the cost. I know, I know, I’m more than willing to pay premium for Disney, but I just didn’t think I wanted to do that for USO. Instead, we’re going to stay at a Marriott right up the road!



They have a shuttle to the parks, and we’re Marriott members, so we’ll get to pay the lower cash rate and accrue some points! Nothing stylish or fancy, but it gets the job done. We’ll stay two nights there and then check out Monday for the long drive home.

In the meantime… We’re getting very close to our DL trip! 17 days, in fact!! I’m so excited for this trip and absolutely cannot get away. Our tickets are bought and our flights are booked and we’re ready for two nights at the Hilton Anaheim!



Can’t wait for this stay!

​

 

[pblack]

What WDW hotel is that? DL girl here and not at all familiar with the WDW properties.

I've stayed at that Hilton though (it was awhile back), but I remember it being a nice hotel.

 

[DisneyMandC]

What WDW hotel is that? DL girl here and not at all familiar with the WDW properties.

I've stayed at that Hilton though (it was awhile back), but I remember it being a nice hotel.

LOL thought I typed the name... let me edit that. It's Coronado Springs!

I've read some good reviews of the Hilton so I'm glad to hear you liked it! At $125/night compared to some of the other hotels around there, I thought that was a great deal.

 

[pblack]

Ahh, it looks like a nice hotel!

Also wanting to add...there's a Target right down the street from the Hilton. They sell Disney merchandise (not the same stuff you find in the parks) but cute stuff none the less, for way cheaper than the parks. Also if you're a coffee fan, you must check out Roasting Water. There's a few locations in that general ar

 

[DisneyMandC]

Ahh, it looks like a nice hotel!

Also wanting to add...there's a Target right down the street from the Hilton. They sell Disney merchandise (not the same stuff you find in the parks) but cute stuff none the less, for way cheaper than the parks. Also if you're a coffee fan, you must check out Roasting Water. There's a few locations in that general ar

Thanks!! My DH is a coffee drinkers so I'll let him know!

 

[pblack]

Somehow my sentence got cut off...the rest was supposed to say. There are a few locations in that general area, but unfortunately you can't walk to any of them. But they are a quick uber ride, or car trip if you'll have a car. It'd be a nice way to take a little break if that's your thing. They also offer all kinds of fruit and tea beverages. https://www.roastingwater.com/menu Well worth the side trip in my opinion! Plus their drinks come in either plastic or glass bottles that you keep.

 

[wendow]

I’m not positive on where I want to request rooms at yet, so give me your recommendations.

Just found your trip report!

Have you already requested rooms?? We stayed here in a refurb room in ranchos 7A. It's so far from the lobby and restaurants but we hit the parks from open to close so we don't really go to the main building. This was a refurbed room, away from construction and very close to a bus stop. You will want to check in with the CS thread on where the construction is but we were not bothered at all by it. And we stayed at the Poly during their construction, and it was a major eyesore and bother. The stuff going on at CS was nothing compared to that.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Just found your trip report!

Have you already requested rooms?? We stayed here in a refurb room in ranchos 7A. It's so far from the lobby and restaurants but we hit the parks from open to close so we don't really go to the main building. This was a refurbed room, away from construction and very close to a bus stop. You will want to check in with the CS thread on where the construction is but we were not bothered at all by it. And we stayed at the Poly during their construction, and it was a major eyesore and bother. The stuff going on at CS was nothing compared to that.

Haven't requested rooms yet, so thank you! We'll also be at parks open to close so no need for the lobby or restaurants either. I would love to see one of the refurbed rooms, so I'm definitely going to look into this!

 

[wendow]

Haven't requested rooms yet, so thank you! We'll also be at parks open to close so no need for the lobby or restaurants either. I would love to see one of the refurbed rooms, so I'm definitely going to look into this!

The refurbed rooms are beautifully done! We were moving over from the first part of our stay at BC, and honestly, the CS rooms were nicer and felt more 'deluxe'. We went to the pool one day (day we checked in), and of course, the BC pool is much nicer but we purposefully planned to only have park days while at CS and more resort time at BC.