Tentative itinerary
Wednesday (8/13) arrival day!
Flight departs at 7am so we are landing around 11am. I think officially Delta lists the landing at 11:10 but history has shown that they tend to bloat their numbers a bit (likely wanting to under promise & over deliver... much similar to Disney & their posted wait times) so I'm thinking we'll land around 10:50ish & will HOPEFULLY score one of the first Mears buses outta there.... unlike last time where we missed it by thiiiiiiiiis much and DS5 had a wee bit of a meltdown. I do plan to be better about pre-preparing some lunch type foods for him to have on the plane AND perhaps after we land, since last year's meltdown was hunger related! Regardless, we'll likely be at the resort before 1pm so I'm hoping we can check in, switch rooms (if they have any of the suites available), meet our stroller rental delivery person, drop off our stuff and go! We do technically have the free water park admission on our arrival day but I already bought 9 park days... so it feels silly to waste them? Plus y'all know how I love to 'book end' my trips - I like to start and end at MK! So, just like last trip, I'm hoping to take the bus from AoA > MK, then after getting our fill there hop on the monorail over to Epcot and close out our night there! That way we can take the Skyliner back to AoA. I'm planning to push our
Walmart grocery delivery back a couple hours since A) last trip we had to RACE to get back to the resort and didn't make it before the driver arrived.. that sucked and B) Matt and I are historically up til at least midnight that first night anyway, unpacking & getting the room organized etc. so it's no big deal to have it scheduled for later in the night in order to not have to race.
Thursday (8/14)
This is all super tentative, obviously, but loosely I'm thinking we'll rope drop DHS (flexible with our plans, either RoR or Slinky or ToT) and then end our night in Epcot again, of course with our usual afternoon hotel rest! We tentatively have a theme park nanny booked for 4 hours this night as well so mom & dad can enjoy Epcot to ourselves for a bit! I'm thinking we'll also get LLMP for this day as we're going to try to do an 'every other' type thing with hitting the parks hard (LLMP days) and more relaxing/go with the flow days (non LLMP days). We didn't get to see Luminous at all last trip, so I'm slating it in for this day but who knows!
Friday (8/15) ***
MNSSHP party day***
I typically try to hit MK for rope drop on party days since *SOMETIMES* this works out in our favor for crowds. Depending on the park hours this day, we maaay have the courage to rope drop 7DMT since the kids do enjoy that one a lot but honestly I am over the chaos that rope dropping that ride brings with it. I wonder if, since MK changed their rope drop process has it gotten any better? Or, gulp, any worse? Anyone who has been there since the change and rope dropped 7DMT I'd love your input!
Anyway, since MK will close early this night for the party I'm thinking of making this a pool/rest afternoon (maybe picking up another poolside lunch/dinner 'to go' at Primo Piatto????) followed by maybe just a quick Fantasmic showing since, again, we didn't get to watch it even once last trip. We won't have LLMP and a ton of things close before the dinner hour at DHS so I'm not banking on any attractions while we're there unless the stars are aligned - just get in, watch Fantasmic, and get out.
Saturday (8/16)
Hoping to rope drop DAK this morning, DS5 is officially tall enough for FOP and while I like the ride I don't love the idea of paying for the LLSP on this one, so rope drop it is (though admittedly we've never rope dropped this one and I've heard it can be chaotic!). If we don't get there early enough, we'd perhaps head over to Everest instead since he is now tall enough for that one too
I'm not leaning toward spending $$ on LLMP for this day but I may change my mind.
After our usual afternoon rest I'm thinking we'll head to MK for a showing of Happily Ever After... I will have to think long and hard about where I want to plant ourselves for this one since the last time we watched HEA (even with the Dessert Party tickets!) it was nearly impossible to get back into the park. I'm thinking maybe if we sit near the Adventureland entrance that would strategically place us at a place with a decent advantage of getting on some rides before the masses??? Thoughts anyone???
Sunday (8/17) ***MNSSHP party day***
Since it's another party day, we'll hit MK for rope drop again, maybe Peter Pan? This will be one of our restful/slower paced days so after we're done with MK we'll take our usual rest and then perhaps head to Disney Springs for dinner. You know we love our Polite Pig!! We do also like to do laundry part way through the trip, so this would be a good time to do it. Depending on the nights prior, we could also hit up a fireworks show (excluding MK, obviously) if the mood strikes us.
Monday (8/18)
We tentatively have slated another 4 hours of nanny-time this day, and I'm thinking this will be another LLMP day as well. We'll rope drop Epcot (Remy's, obviously, since we're staying at a Skyliner resort) and more than likely buy a LLSP for Guardians because, well, it's Guardians. After our hotel rest I'm thinking we'll head to DHS for this night's mom & dad date night adventure while the kids are off with their nanny. Perhaps Fantasmic again to round out the night??? If you can't tell I'm really trying to go heavy on the fireworks this trip since we slacked SO severely last trip!!
Tuesday (8/19) ***MNSSHP party day***
Another party day, so again rope drop MK (strategy will be based on the park hours, so not sure yet). We typically tend to neglect DAK (not intentionally, I swear! We love that park!) and so I'm forcing us to go to DAK for the rest of the afternoon. Since they close earlier than the other parks, we may end up nixing the afternoon rest (gasp- will we survive?!) and calling it an early night once the park closes (typically around 7pm). Landscape of Flavors large cheese pizza + 'Old Mickeys' anyone???
Alternatively, if we do end up napping and can 'hang' with the big kids we could also go to whichever fireworks show we haven't caught yet.
Wednesday (8/20)
Our last 4 hour chunk of time with the nanny! We are spoiled, I know. I'm thinking for this day we'll do DHS in the morning and close out the night at Epcot.
Thursday (8/21) last park day, waaaaaah!
Will for sure be buying LLMP for our last park day and have tentatively planned to rope drop Epcot & close out at Magic Kingdom (my bookend theory, remember!). I don't think we're doing any sort of dessert party or anything like that this go around, but obviously I said that last trip and look what happened so.... we'll see.
Friday (8/22) return the stroller, check out of the hotel, hop on the Mears bus to fly home at 2:45pm.
Boo, even typing it out makes me sad and we haven't even had the trip yet!!!
