Yes Our Teeth and Ambitions Are Bared! Be Prepared! Trip Report Started!!!

[AAshleySEG]

Trip Report Started!! ​

Hi Guys!! I had no idea until a few days ago that I would need to make another PTR so soon! Our next Disney trip is planned for June, but when I was booking my MNSSHP tickets for September, I noticed that there was a special event available that I had not heard of yet. I spoke to DH about it, and he was extremely interested, our plans were already set for June so we decided to take another little weekend trip in July to be able to go to Harambe Nights! So without further ado, here are the introductions for this PTR in case you are not familiar with us!

My name is Andrea! I am a 29 year old Disney fanatic! The first time I went to Disney World was in 1991! I cannot remember anything about that trip really with the only exception that I stood in line for 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea but did not actually ride it. Now...why that memory sticks out in my head is beyond me...but that is what I remember. My love of Disney World didn't come until a few years later. When I was 11 years old, I was diagnosed with Leukemia. Thankfully, I have been in remission for 18 years! But while I was going through chemo I was fortunate enough to be able to do a Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World! I had such a great trip that Disney is now in almost all aspects of our lives!

With that in mind, we were pretty much lower middle class when I was growing up, so Disney was not something we could really afford until I started making my own money. So I was not able to go back until 2003. Since then, the amount of trips we have taken have grown a significant amount. In 2006 my now DH, Jeremy, proposed to me during Wishes, we have done Disney trips for every Anniversary with the exception of 2013. In 2009 we became DVC members, so now with DVC points and AP, we go usually at least 4 times per year.

The majority of the time we do about 3-4 Days type trips, as opposed to long ones. Jeremy has a crazy work schedule and he has to go out of town a lot, so we squeeze them in whenever he has free time. This year (2014) we went for our first trip in March, we have our annual Disney Anniversary trip in June PTR Here Trip Report here and now we added this trip once we found out about Harambe Nights!

I just realized I don't have very many photos of us from Animal Kingdom. I did manage to find this photo of us from our June Anniversary Trip in 2011

And another funny one of Jeremy, that I could NOT resist putting on here, he does the craziest things sometimes, I am so glad I catch them on film!

Update: Now have more Animal Kingdom photos! This one is from June 2014!

So anyways, back to the PTR. It will just be Jeremy and myself going on the little vacay. We do not have children...well...the two-legged kind anyway. We do have 4 dog children plus a semi-adopted 5th.

The trip will be from July 23rd - July 27th. I am working out the details currently, so as soon as I have some hard info for you guys I will definitely put it up! So until then, Have A Magical Day!

May 16, 2014: Harambe Nights Tickets Arrived!!
May 24, 2014: Fastpass + Reservations Made!!
June 18, 2014: Trip Plan Overhaul!! New FP+ changes and ADR changes!
July 6, 2014: First Day Plan Changes to include Frozen Summer Celebration!
July 13, 2014: Added plans for Charleston on Day One to include Fort Sumter!

Links:
Day One: Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Day Two: Thursday, July 24, 2014
Day Three: Friday, July 25, 2014
Day Four & Five: Saturday & Sunday, July 26 & 27, 2014

July Trip Budget
Fastpass + Selections
DisneyBound Styling!
Trip Journal Selection!
Plans for Charleston, Fort Sumter!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Jeremy and I live in Southport, NC. It is in the range of 572 miles from here to Walt Disney World. So driving straight through it takes roughly 9 hours give or take. Back in December when we went to the world, we decided to leave the night before after Jeremy had gotten off work and just drive until we found a suitable hotel for the evening.

We realized that it was actually a really good idea, so now for our June trip and this trip in July we have already booked the night before hotel which is in Georgia. It takes maybe 5 1/2 hours or so to get to the hotel from our house.

So on Wednesday, Jeremy will probably leave really early from work, and we can get on the road in the late morning hours. We are planning on stopping somewhere for lunch around noon, maybe in Pawley's Island, SC? Then it will give us time to stop somewhere for a bite to eat for dinner in Charleston, SC. Not to mention now being able to go to Fort Sumter as a new activity on this afternoon!!

When we were at Victoria & Albert's on our June trip our server Chris suggested that next time we are in Charleston we should try out FIG. Well, since we were going to be driving down anyway we decided to make a reservation to eat dinner there on our July trip! We also requested for Chris to be our server again when we go to V&A so we can tell him how we liked it! So Fingers Crossed, I hope we do!

After dinner we are going to start our drive to the Hotel for the night, in Georgia, so we can get to bed at a reasonable time to get up and drive the remainder of the way to WDW!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Thursday morning we are planning on getting up to finish the drive to the world! We will definitely stop at Panera Bread outside of Jacksonville, FL for breakfast! It should take somewhere between 3 1/2-4 hours to get to our resort for this stay!

Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village. We were able to use our DVC points for this trip! Which is a huge plus for us without an extra cost for the Disney Resort Room! We will also still have active Premium Annual Passes for this trip, so no park ticket costs either!

Once we arrive at the resort we are going to park the car and hopefully take the bus over to Disney's Hollywood Studios for the Frozen Summer Celebration!

We plan on spending time at the park until mid afternoon, then going back to the hotel a bit to check-in and get everything moved from the car to the room! Then afterwards head back over to the park!

We do have a dinner reservation after the 7:00 hour at Hollywood Brown Derby with some friends of ours that live right near Disney World!

FP+ Update:
11:40-12:40 Tower of Terror
2:10-3:10 Star Tours
6:00-7:00 Toy Story Midway Mania

 

[AAshleySEG]

This morning we don't have any plans for breakfast because we are going to try for an early lunch at Be Our Guest right around the time
they open at 10:30!

FP+ Update (as of June 18):
9:10-10:10 Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
11:30-12:30 Cinderella & Rapunzel
12:35-1:35 Space Mountain

After we are finished with Space Mountain we are going to be heading out of Magic Kingdom! We both have appointments!! I am going to get the Renew Manicure at Senses Spa at the Grand Floridian!

Jeremy has his usual pre-V&A haircut appointment at Ivy Trellis!

Once done we are going to get back to Animal Kingdom Lodge to get dressed...only to return back once again to the Grand Floridian for dinner!

Tonight's dinner will be the last opportunity we have to use the Tables in Wonderland Card at Victoria & Albert's so we wanted to squeeze in one last discount there before we have to pay full price in the future. As of August 1, 2014 they will no longer be accepting it at that location.

Update: We called this afternoon (June 18) to request to have Chris as our server in the Main Dining Room. He suggested us a restaurant to go to in Charleston so we decided to try it out on our way down to WDW. He was fantastic, as are all of the serving teams at V&A. We definitely have some favorites! Rado & Al, Beth & Mike, we LOVE you guys! We have had both Beth & Mike, and Al & Rado twice, so to keep it even we requested Chris this time around!

Depending on what time we finish up with dinner we will either head over to Magic Kingdom to see Wishes and the Main Street Electrical Parade...or make our way back to the resort for bed. More than likely, we will just go back to the resort!

 

[MidnightParade]

Yay new/2nd PTR!!

Oh wow, I can't imagine going through Leukemia at eleven, or being the parent to a child going through it. Very happy to know its been in remission. And as awful as it may have been it led to Disney love!

Okay I burst out laughing at the picture of Jeremy touching/scratching the gorillas butt! Hilarious!

Your plans look great! I'm interested to see how you like Garden Grill, haven't tried it myself but it how can you say no to a revolving restaurant?!

Really looking forward to see how Harambe Nights turn out for you!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Yay new/2nd PTR!!

Oh wow, I can't imagine going through Leukemia at eleven, or being the parent to a child going through it. Very happy to know its been in remission. And as awful as it may have been it led to Disney love!

Okay I burst out laughing at the picture of Jeremy touching/scratching the gorillas butt! Hilarious!

Your plans look great! I'm interested to see how you like Garden Grill, haven't tried it myself but it how can you say no to a revolving restaurant?!

Really looking forward to see how Harambe Nights turn out for you!

Yay!! I am so glad you joined me over here too! It almost feels like having Leukemia was a lifetime ago, even though I still remember everything about that time, but you are right, without it I don't think I would have had as much of an appreciation for Disney as I do now!

Jeremy is crazy, he does some of the silliest things in photos and video

I am pretty psyched about Garden Grill, I never realized what the menu was there but once I read it, I knew we had to do it sometime and yeah revolving restaurant, totally can't go wrong...I hope!

 

[AAshleySEG]

So we made it to Saturday! On today's to do list we start ourselves out with breakfast either at the Mara at Jambo House or McDonald's. Then make our way over to either Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach to meet our friends for some Water Park fun! We will also be doing a Quick Service lunch at whichever park we choose to go to!

At around 2:00 we need to start heading out of the water park to go back to the resort to get dressed and ready for the reason we are going on this weekend trip in the first place! Harambe Nights with Premium Seating!

You can enter the park at 4:00 with the Harambe Nights tickets, although if for some reason we have trouble, we still have our PAPs. We may try and catch a Flights of Wonder Show, Finding Nemo the Musical or something similar. We may possibly ride something, but not sure as of yet.

FP+ Update (As of June 18)
3:30-4:30 - Kilimanjaro Safari
4:30-5:30 - Expedition Everest
5:30-5:50 - Finding Nemo the Musical

At 7:00 the Harambe Nights Special Event starts, so I think we should be heading over to Africa to partake in all of the evenings festivities! I can't wait to hear about the people that go on the first night! I think the special guest narrator on our night is Alfre Woodard, which is pretty darn cool I think!

When the night is over we are gonna head back over to Kidani Village for some sleepy time on our last night at the World!

Sunday: Top Secret! You will have to wait for the TR to find out!

Monday morning we have breakfast at Boma, since it is so conveniently located!

After breakfast, depending on how we feel...we are either going to start the drive home...or...stop and get some popcorn before we leave to go home

 

[MidnightParade]

Pizza Planet just seems fun! And I think its the only restaurant/quick service out of an actual Disney movie right?

Yay for Harambe night! I had to google Alfre Woodard but I do absolutely know who she is very. Very very cool!

Gonna be an awesome trip!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Pizza Planet just seems fun! And I think its the only restaurant/quick service out of an actual Disney movie right?

Yay for Harambe night! I had to google Alfre Woodard but I do absolutely know who she is very. Very very cool!

Gonna be an awesome trip!

Jeremy had to google her too but like you as soon as he did he knew who she was!

Pizza Planet is fun, there is usually always plenty of seating indoors/upstairs/outside, and it is really just a cool atmosphere, and I really like their veggie pizza!

 

[AAshleySEG]

I was very happily surprised when I went out to check the mail today! Our Harambe Nights tickets are here!! Sometimes I do wish Disney would do special commemorative tickets for these special events, but oh well, maybe one day! For now, I am still thrilled to have my Mickey & Minnie hard plastic tickets in hand!

 

[MidnightParade]

Yay Mickey mail! It would be nice to get special tickets for it! Do they have special ones for MNSSHP or MVMCP? Cause if so I don't think it would be hard to add in Harambe nights! Perhaps next year depending on the success after this year.

 

[mamamaleficent]

Hi I am enjoying your PTR and very jealous of all your upcoming trips. Garden grill was very yummy and we loved the character interactions. I am not one to get motion sickness at all (I love thrill rides) but for some reason the revolving room(it's really, really slow by the way) made me dizzy a few times. Other than that, I loved it!

Can't wait to hear about your Harambe Nights experience.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Yay Mickey mail! It would be nice to get special tickets for it! Do they have special ones for MNSSHP or MVMCP? Cause if so I don't think it would be hard to add in Harambe nights! Perhaps next year depending on the success after this year.

Unfortunately the other party tickets that I received were normal as well. For some reason I feel like a few years ago when they had the paper tickets, that they were different the first time I went to the Not So Scary...maybe not, I just don't remember exactly, but for some reason I still think they were. Who knows

Hi I am enjoying your PTR and very jealous of all your upcoming trips. Garden grill was very yummy and we loved the character interactions. I am not one to get motion sickness at all (I love thrill rides) but for some reason the revolving room(it's really, really slow by the way) made me dizzy a few times. Other than that, I loved it!

Can't wait to hear about your Harambe Nights experience.

Welcome!! I am glad you are enjoying the PTR! Oh man, I never even thought about that happening at the Garden Grill...hmm...I wonder if I should take some Less Drowsy dramamine just in case? I take it with me when we go on the cruises to combat any potentials, so I may toss it in my bag just in case! Thanks for the heads up about your experience!

They just released the menu, etc. for Harambe Nights, and now I think I am even more excited than I was before...if that is even possible. Sanaa, Jiko, and Boma and 3 of our favorite restaurants on property and the Harambe Nights food selection is pretty much inspired by those 3, so I absolutely was getting hungry just reading over the menu and browsing the photos! I can't wait for the Lion Chow, which is a snack they are giving us to eat during the show!

 

[Raven0207]

I"M SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Ready to go ! Can I come home yet so we can go ?

 

[AAshleySEG]

I"M SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Ready to go ! Can I come home yet so we can go ?

I wish you could come home so we could go, at least it won't be that much longer now, then we have a few trips to look forward to.

 

[Raven0207]

So can I come home now ?

What do you mean I do silly things on camera. It is a proven fact I can not make a straight face or be serious for a camera. Things just have to be pinched ! Even a Monkey's Butt !

The one thing I know your looking forward to on all these trips is

 

[AAshleySEG]

So can I come home now ?

What do you mean I do silly things on camera. It is a proven fact I can not make a straight face or be serious for a camera. Things just have to be pinched ! Even a Monkey's Butt !
The one thing I know your looking forward to on all these trips is

You better believe I am looking forward to popcorn!

​

 

[AAshleySEG]

It has come time where I need to plan out the budget for this trip to ensure we can save enough money up for food and any other expenses we may have.

Bonuses: Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village we got on DVC points, so no additional cost for lodging except the prepaid one night hotel in GA, so that will not factor into the savings budget. We have our Premium Annual Passes until June of 2015, so no park ticket costs. We still have a valid Tables in Wonderland card, so we get the 20% discount at the following restaurants this trip: Hollywood Brown Derby, Victoria & Albert's, and Boma. Harambe Nights has been pre-paid for a while now, so that does not factor into this budget.

Budget Updated as of June 18, 2014

Gas $200 Round-trip

Food Budget:
Day 1
Lunch in Pawley's Island, SC
Restaurant Reservation in Charleston, SC $150

Day 2
Panera Bread Breakfast: $20
Snacks at Hollywood Studios $30
Ice Skating $20
Hollywood Brown Derby Dinner $150

Day 3
Be Our Guest Lunch $50
Manicure at Senses Spa $75
Haircut at Ivy Trellis $60
Victoria & Albert's Dinner $650 or less

Day 4
The Mara Breakfast or McDonald's $20
Water Park Lunch $30

Day 5
Boma Breakfast $60
Panera Lunch/Dinner $20

Total Budget: $1775

Snack Budget $50 (Mickey Bars, Popcorn, Turkey Legs, Waters, etc.)

Souvenir Budget $150 (Rarely used, but since it is a brand new special event we may decide to get something from Harambe Nights or the Frozen Summer Celebration)

Any additional funds leftover will be carried over to the budget for the September Disney Trip! As well as any additional funds from the June trip will be carried over to the budget for this July trip! We did have $250 leftover from the June trip to bring over to the savings for July!! Yippee!!!

 

[MidnightParade]

lol, I had moment looking at your total food budget as thats almost our whole 9 night budget and then I remember V&A's. whew!

 

[AAshleySEG]

lol, I had moment looking at your total food budget as thats almost our whole 9 night budget and then I remember V&A's. whew!

LOL! Yeah, it eats up a big chunk o' budget. It would be under $500 if it wasn't there lol. It's so funny how we do things at home as far as not buying anything because of how much we LOVE and look forward to eating there