"You and me, we're in a club now!" - a DFTW/Disneymoon/Vacay August 2017 PTR

[OregonMomToWDW]

So much news! I used a travel agency around Labor Day for our first ever visit to WDW. Stayed at Beach Club. I thought it was a great deal. The deluxe theming was not appreciated by my kids, so they got value the next year and loved it. So, they do not get to go back to deluxe. I am trying moderate this year, just because I need the queen beds.

I don't know where to start on all the news. Glad your aunt and family decided to plan to go. It will be exciting for their 8 year old son. Congrats on the part-time job signing. Sounds like fun.

Wedding cake tasting? Yumm. So glad you get to do that!

 

[ariane37]

Yeah, I think it'll be really fun! We dress up and wear poodle skirts and stuff

Have you ever watched "Friends"? This reminds me of a job Monica had in a diner for a time, she dressed up like that and wore roller skates

. I actually don't know too much 50s music cuz I'm a wee babe

Um don't rub it in lol. I'm not old enough to have listened to 50's music originally, but my mom loved it so I do know lots of song from then!

I sang "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" for my audition, and I think I'll be doing "Lollipop" and "Please Mr. Postman" among other things.

Love all of them!

Yay! I hope this is a go! I'll send you a message closer to the time and we can exchange some contact info.

Perfect

 

[MeghanEmily]

So many exciting things! Congrats on the new part time job! And glad to hear those family member may be coming to the wedding after all!

Your May plans sound great so far!

So much excitement! Is that one of those things like "good things come in threes?" Excitement seems to come in dozens! And we're all really pleased that now almost all of our close family will be able to be there with us.

So much news! I used a travel agency around Labor Day for our first ever visit to WDW. Stayed at Beach Club. I thought it was a great deal. The deluxe theming was not appreciated by my kids, so they got value the next year and loved it. So, they do not get to go back to deluxe. I am trying moderate this year, just because I need the queen beds.

Other than maybe AKL or WL, I can't really see deluxes really appealing to most kids. Some, I'm sure, but as a kid I would have been just as happy at a value. I loved the All Stars on my first trip as a kid, actually. I hope you have good experiences at the moderates! Of the two I've stayed at so far, I really liked both, and I'm looking forward to CSR this trip.

I don't know where to start on all the news. Glad your aunt and family decided to plan to go. It will be exciting for their 8 year old son. Congrats on the part-time job signing. Sounds like fun.

Wedding cake tasting? Yumm. So glad you get to do that!

Thank you! I'm really excited for their son to see Disney. He's a super-busy and enthusiastic kid, so I think he'll have a ball.

We're already salivating at the thought of cake tasting...

Have you ever watched "Friends"? This reminds me of a job Monica had in a diner for a time, she dressed up like that and wore roller skates

I had totally forgotten about that episode! I hope they don't expect me to sing in roller skates! That will not go well

 

[vrajewski10513]

Also exciting? Today I got a new part-time job. I don't really have the time or energy for another job, but it's a cool one, so I couldn't resist. It's singing two nights a week in a 50s diner. The shifts are only 3 hours and the pay is good. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep it when I go back to school if the scheduling works out!

That sounds like a really fun job! Congrats!

Well just in the last couple of days they've decided that they are tentatively ALL planning to go.

That's great!!

In OTHER EXCITING NEWS (because yes, there's more!) some of you may have noticed @chunkymonkey's comments on here about using an unnamed travel agency which is known to offer a very low special rate on deluxe hotels leading up to Labor Day. We chatted about it, and I decided to look into it and get a quote for our stay at the Poly Aug. 19-22. When I saw the quote, it seemed a little too good to be true, and I had a moment where I was very skeptical.

If it's the travel agency I'm thinking of, we used then for our trip last year and everything went great! Very smooth process, you shouldn't have any worries!

You may notice a gap in our morning FP. That's because I have a secret! I booked the Caring for Giants tour from 10:00-11:00 as a surprise for N.

This sounds like so much fun! I love elephants!

1:00-2:00 - wedding cake tasting at Erin McKenna's in Disney Springs!

That's awesome you get to do this now!

3:30-?? (maybe an hour?) - meet (and talk through ceremony) with our officiant, Rev. Kevin.

I bet its definitely giving you a little piece of mind being able to do all of this on your May trip instead of having to wait until you show up for your wedding!

 

[MeghanEmily]

If it's the travel agency I'm thinking of, we used then for our trip last year and everything went great! Very smooth process, you shouldn't have any worries!

Excellent! So far so good, it seems

I bet its definitely giving you a little piece of mind being able to do all of this on your May trip instead of having to wait until you show up for your wedding!

Absolutely! I'm sure everything would have gone just fine, but it take a load of my mind.

 

[MeghanEmily]

We Be Stylin' - Episode 2 &
May Long Weekend Plans - Disney Day 2

Sometimes Wednesday feels like Thursday. ...okay, I'm gonna be real with you. Usually Wednesday feels like Thursday. Today was no exception.

Sometimes you just have those days where everyone and everything that comes your way makes you feel like "...really??" Like today the lady who was proofreading my braille came in to tell me that she couldn't figure out why her proof notes weren't coming out of the printer, but that she'd just tell them to me. Then later she went back to the printer and, miraculously, they were there. So she just threw them out. Instead of giving them to me. My office is, like, beside the printer. And I'm trusting her to correct my errors.

It's the little things.

And then I sat through a union meeting this afternoon. I can't even begin to discuss it. You wouldn't want me to.

My patience was probably also a little shorter today since today was my first 5:45 wake up! In order to get to the diner on time, I need to push my work hours at my braille job earlier, so now I have to start work at 6:55am. I've always believed that any time the alarm goes off that's before 6am is an ungodly hour.

But we're gonna' make it work. And nightly, probably by 10pm, this will be me:

But! Then I remember Disney. You gotta work hard to deserve all that Disney magic!

So in terms of wedding news, it's time to report more "stylin'" attire! Most importantly, I've now booked my appointment for alterations to my wedding dress for the end of this month. So hopefully I'll be close to the weight/measurements by then that I'll be at for the wedding. And fortunately the dress is forgiving in that it laces up the back if I gain/lose after that. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

Perhaps even more exciting though, is that all my Etsy ears have all come in now! I bought some cheap matching ears for me and my bridesmaids from PhantomManorBoutique. I'm definitely not thrilled with them, but they're cute, and I guess you get what you pay for. (They do seem to stay on my fat glasses-wearing head the best of the three pairs though...) I love my rose gold ears from MarisaAnneDesigns (even if they're a little overstuffed for my liking), and my AMAZING purple castle ears from BeEarGuest. <3

We're gonna' look so fly on this trip. Just sayin'.

Or course, all my ears have pretty bows and are shiny and whatnot...

May Whirlwind Weekend Travel Plans:
Disney Day 2 - May 20

Our second (and final) full park day will begin with a good old fashioned Magic Kingdom rope drop...except not exactly, because it'll be our first MK rope drop since they've changed the welcome show and procedures. I'm staying openminded about the new changes and am aware of the potential benefits. But I will definitely miss the old welcome show.

I really have one main goal for our morning in MK: FRONTIERLAND.

I almost always begin a rope drop in Fantasyland to knock out headliners and all the little rides that will quickly get long lines, but I think this time we'll possibly switch it up a bit because my main priorities for MK this trip are Big Thunder, Splash (Fave!!), and trying the new maple popcorn at the Frontierland popcorn cart (which is gluten and dairy free!) Once we've tackled this we'll do other things, like Adventureland, or Liberty Square, etc., going wherever the moment takes us, until what was supposed to be our only TS ADR (more on that later)...

11:35am - Skipper Canteen!

Ok, to be entirely honest here, they had me at gluten free fried chicken.

This is one of those places I've always been meaning to try since it opened (two trips ago for us,) but somehow it never seemed to work out. It didn't fit with our plans, or there was always somewhere else we wanted to go back to. We wanted one sit down meal on this budget trip, and this was the perfect time to finally bite the bullet and make the ADR here!

After lunch we'll hop over to HS for a few FP. We didn't get there at all over Christmas, so we had a few priorities this time.

1:45 - Star Tours and ToT, both for N
2:45 - Indiana Jones Show
3:45 - Rock 'n' Rollercoaster for N
3:45 - Great Move Ride for me

N loves rollercoasters, but he's never been on RnR because he always sticks with me. This time I'm graciously forcing him into it. (He's also never done ToT!) And I know we don't really need a FP for Indy, or any show for that matter...but there's really not that much that interests me on the FP list at HS. I had almost picked TSMM for our tier 1 FP together, but I can't guarantee I won't have too much of a headache in my aforementioned #brainprobs state to handle it, so GMR is a safer bet.

I'm not completely decided on where we'll spend our evening, but I'm 95% convinced we'll use it to hop back to MK for some more rides (it's open latest till 11pm)...and to check out the brand new Happily Ever After show!

Originally I had thought that it might be nice to save Happily Ever After as a surprise for our honeymoon trip, but if I'm being honest I don't think I'll be satisfied waiting that long if I'm gonna' be right there... And since the park is open till 11pm, we'll still have time to get in a couple rides with shorter waits once the park hopefully clears out after the fireworks. ...that is, if we haven't collapsed from exhaustion by that point.

Next update will be our last few plans and our return travel on our last day!​

 

[missangelalexis]

The change of schedule must be tough..just keep Disney on your mind to power through!

Love all the ears, so cute!

Your 2nd day plans sound so great! Starting and (hopefully) ending your day with MK with some Hollywood Studios in between sounds so perfect!

 

[MeghanEmily]

The change of schedule must be tough..just keep Disney on your mind to power through!

Love all the ears, so cute!

Your 2nd day plans sound so great! Starting and (hopefully) ending your day with MK with some Hollywood Studios in between sounds so perfect!

Thanks! Yep - just gotta' keep thinkin' those happy Disney thoughts!

 

[vamassey1]

We may actually cross paths on the 20th. We're flying in early that day. We have lunch @ TREX and then we're headed to HS too. Our first FP isn't until 5:10. I'm hoping to get there much earlier but that depend on how tired we are. Our flight from New Orleans leaves at 6:30 a.m. We may need a nap after lunch if our room is ready.

 

[MeghanEmily]

We may actually cross paths on the 20th. We're flying in early that day. We have lunch @ TREX and then we're headed to HS too. Our first FP isn't until 5:10. I'm hoping to get there much earlier but that depend on how tired we are. Our flight from New Orleans leaves at 6:30 a.m. We may need a nap after lunch if our room is ready.

Oh, maybe we will end up seeing you then! Fingers crossed Hopefully you'll get lots of HS time, but those travel days can really wipe you out, so you'll know what's best for you. Sounds like fun! Nathan loves TRex.

 

[MeghanEmily]

Hello good Dis-ers!

Just dropping by to wish you all a happy Friday! Here’s hoping you all have the most wonderfully satisfying weekends.

Today I ran 22 minutes straight. I wanted you all to know. It was hard for me. But having the motivation of RunDisney is the best possible reason to run! That said, it was 22 minutes on the treadmill, which will equate to…like…3 minutes outdoors.

(is equal to...)

Also wanted to share a few pictures that have come out of our Princess Tea for Children’s Wish. We don’t have our company’s official pictures yet, but some of the ones that have been shared on social media have been super cute! (I don’t know any of these kids personally, but since other organizations have already posted them publically on FB and the like, I think sharing them is now officially fair game.)

Also, I just watched the newest video sneak peek for Happily Ever After on the Disney Parks Blog tonight...and I'm getting pretty excited, guys. I don't want to be unfaithful to Wishes or anything...and I'm not a fan of using fewer fireworks in favour of projections or anything...but this could seriously be pretty cool...​

 

[MeghanEmily]

Happily Ever After Blog Post for anyone interested.​

 

[vamassey1]

If we arrive at HS early we'll keep a look at for you.

The Princess pictures are fabulous. Everyone looks like their having so much fun.

I watched the Happily Ever After video on Friday! It gave me the feels. I'm really excited to see it now.

 

[MeghanEmily]

The Princess pictures are fabulous. Everyone looks like their having so much fun.

We really did have a ball It was a long day, but very rewarding.

 

[missangelalexis]

Such cute pictures of your friend Anna!

 

[2disneywego]

So excited for you for, well, everything, but especially your May trip. I live here and so far have no plans for the weekend and I'd love to try and meet up if you like. If we could do it at Skipper Canteen even better.

 

[MeghanEmily]

Hello! Guess what! Today's Tuesday. Which is not Monday. So it automatically has that in its favor.

Today is also special because depending on how you slice it (and which days you consider the true "first days" of each trip, depending on whether travel days count, etc,) today is both my double digit day for our August wedding trip, and my single digit day for our May Long Weekend!

Disneymoon = 99 days!
May Whirlwind = 9 days!

I've been informed that when this happens you need to dance.

(No problem there — counting down the days to Disney always makes me feel like dancing!)

May Whirlwind Weekend Travel Plans:
Return Travel Day - May 21

Wow, how did we already get to traveling home!? ...oh, right. This is just a weekend trip. Hmmm. It feels weird.

Firstly, there's been a bit of a change of plans. Originally I'd been hoping to have time to stop at the Character Warehouse at the outlets on Vineland (or International Drive, for that matter...both are pretty much on the way to Sanford) on our drive back to the airport this day. I hadn't been there since I was too young to remember much, and I thought it might be a good chance to pick up a few little unexpected things for the 8-year-old cousin's wedding welcome bag at deep discounts...seeing as this trip is all about budgeting! I checked online, and the CWs didn't open until 10am... I rationalized that if we got there immediately at opening we'd still have time to shop and get to the airport in plenty of time for a 2:30-ish flight. But then the curse my family's instilled upon me of getting to the airport freakishly early in case of traffic delays or other unplanned issues hit me...and I decided I couldn't cut it that close...even though it's a domestic flight rather than our usual international...and even though we won't be checking bags... I just couldn't justify the possibility of missing those flights that we paid such a reasonable price for, just to have to pay wildly to book new flights to get home, etc.

So all that said, I decided to go back to my Disney Day 2 and rearrange our HS FP+ a bit so we'd have a little extra time in the afternoon that day if we decided we'd still like to make the trek out to Character Warehouse. Now it's an option, but not solidly part of our plans. We'll see. I'm flexible. (Hah, right.) I don't want transportation and parking to take up all our vacation time or anything, but at least we have options.

So now a little more backstory! Originally, because we were keeping a pretty strict budget, we decided on only ONE table service meal on this trip. That was Skipper Canteen. But the closer the trip got, the more a difficult-to-swallow realization was dawning on me...that meant I'd have an entire Disney trip with NO Mickey waffles. Not one waffle. That just didn't seem acceptable. I pitched getting resort quick service on our return travel day, and N suggested if we were doing this anyway, why not spend the extra and go to Boma. Man, does that boy ever love his Boma! And I don't blame him one bit. He offered to pay for it himself, and I decided that since he didn't know I was paying for the Caring for Giants tour myself (which works out to almost the exact same value,) that that plan actually works really nicely. We'll both be treating each other to one special little $50ish-event. Works for me! ...and I get my waffles.

​

Travel day itinerary:​

• Prep something for lunch to bring with us, and then get our humble bumbles out of the timeshare early in the AM.
• 8:30am - Boma breakfast. Yum!
• Post-breakfast - drive to Sanford International, drop off rental car, hang out in the airport for an eternity. Drug myself (non-recreationally!) for the flight.
• 2:30pm(ish) - fly back to Maine. Wave goodbye. Cry a little. Start getting excited for August!!
• 6:00pm(ish) - roll out of the airport, find some grub, and drive back across the border.

Disney is so close I can almost taste it! ​

 

[2disneywego]

Never been to Boma yet, but always have to have my Mickey waffles! Yummy!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Never been to Boma yet, but always have to have my Mickey waffles! Yummy!

I highly recommend Boma for either breakfast or dinner.

 

[missangelalexis]

Boma sounds great as a departure day breakfast!