June 2024 PTR - Fam of 4 at Poly w/ DDP! UPDATED 5/15

[RN_Mama_inFL]

Hello all! First time PTR here! I’ve read a lot of TRs and PTRs and it really helps me plan/get excited/live vicariously so I’m paying it forward and sharing my own! I’m very open to others ideas/suggestions so if there’s anything in here that you might do differently, I’m all EARS!

Introductions
We are a family of 4, native Floridians living about 2 hours south of Orlando. My husband and I have been married for 8 years and have a 6 year old daughter and 2 year old boy. Our soon turns 3 very soon after this trip so we wanted a nice vacation before we have to buy his own AP!



We’ve had APs the last 3 years or so, and other trips each year in between including quite a few times just going up for the day and home by bedtime! We really started going often after our daughter’s first trip when she was 2 (so about 4-5 years now)
[Interesting fact: we were at Magic Kingdom the day the parks reopened in 2020 totally by chance. We already had a trip booked with that as our arrival date and never cancelled so we went and got to experience a totally different (and totally empty!) MK.]

I’m an RN and going on my 10th year! It’s unbelievably rewarding and also mentally and physically exhausting. I also am new to the Rundisney crowd and have done 2 half marathons and just registered for the 2025 Marathon during marathon weekend!

We are rope-droppers and usually midday breakers (but not always) and never ever park closers Kids are in bed by 8:30 at the latest so we have not been able to catch any fireworks shows for years. Hopefully going to try and stay up to watch HEA from Poly beach in our Jammie’s on the night that we don’t have to be up early the next day. I’m amazed at everyone here that can stay up until 11-12 (or later!) and then rope drop again the next day!!! Seriously don’t know how you do it.

On with the trip!

 

[RN_Mama_inFL]

Trip Details

- Staying at the Polynesian (rented DVC) studio for 3 nights, 4 park days.



- After running the numbers and calculating exactly what we would buy for meals, the Disney Dining Plan was purchased! If my math is correct, we won’t save THAT much (~$50) but the pre paying aspect and the joy I will have not worrying about the bill at every meal like I usually do is worth it to me! Reservations are already booked and I’ll share those in another post.

- Rough itinerary
Arrival day: Epcot
Day 2: Magic Kingdom morning, Epcot evening
Day 3: Poly pool day, afternoon/evening at Hollywood Studios
Day 4: Animal Kingdom

Genie+ and ILL$ will be purchased on 2 of the 4 days, the MK/Epcot day and HS evening

 

[RN_Mama_inFL]

Dining Reservations:

At our 60 day mark, I booked 3 TS meals for our dining plan. As it turns out, they are all buffets. I don’t know if I’ll regret this and wish we had one that wasn’t a buffet but at the time these are the places we wanted to go to. I was a little picky about where we eat based on ease of location and dining plan value. 2 credit TS were not an option so I wanted to go to more higher price point 1 TS credit restaurants.

First night dinner at 1900 Park Fare
The announcement of this reopening got me and I’ve never been here. Characters are a plus for my kids and a lot of the food options sound good to us. It’s easy to get to Grand Floridian from Poly so this seemed like a no brainer. Plus- they are not accepting any discounts for the first year so we wouldn’t have gotten the AP discount if not on the dining plan.

2nd night we are hopping to Epcot for dinner and booked Biergarten. We have eaten here before about 1 year ago and really enjoyed it. Lots of options for kids and the musical entertainment is great. Bonus: ginormous beers for DH

3rd day we decided not to do any TS. This is our pool day and going to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon so our rough plans are to get QS meal at Docking Bay 7. I really want to try the Surly Sarlacc drink!!!

Last day we are going to Animal Kingdom before driving home. Sooo Tusker House it is. More characters and I’ve read good reviews recently. We went once for dinner back in 2020 so this time we are getting breakfast. (Although reservation is for 10:20 so maybe we’ll be able to try a little bit of the lunch??)

Cute pic from last time


Do we think all buffets is a bad idea? It’s not super easy to make plates for 2 kids and ourselves but it also means not waiting for food after ordering so I think I’m ok with it?

 

[kclark9830]

Sounds like fun!

 

[RN_Mama_inFL]

SNACKS (etc)

As my tag line suggests…one of my main goals is SNACKS! We are big foodie’s and love to try new things.

So we can’t wait to try out a bunch of yummy stuff on this trip. On the dining plan we will get 3 snacks a day (1 for each of us) which sounds like a lot! We usually only have 1 or 2 snacks a day and share those so to have 3 will be great. I’ve been eyeing menus and trip reports to narrow down what sounds good/be a good value on the dining plan.

(Not you, Mickey pretzel)


Here is a rough list of stuff I have in mind. Anything you think I should add or remove?

(Already planning on a Starbucks Venti Iced Latte for Mommy )

• Magic Kingdom:
  • Cinnamon roll from Gaston’s
  • Cheddar Jack Pretzel from Cheshire Cat Cafe
  • Any float/sundae from Auntie Gravity or Storybook Treats
• Epcot:
  • Pretzel bread pudding from Germany
• Hollywood Studios:
  • Wookiee cookie from Backlot express
• Animal Kingdom:
  • Pineapple crisp sundae from Tamu Tamu

My list ended up being a lot of sweet stuff but I actually prefer savory so send me some ideas!

Also on my must-try list is the Viking Coffee from Norway!! I love anything and everything coffee (helllloooo espresso martinis) so I think I will really like this. Speaking of espresso martinis, anyone know a good place to get one!?

If anyone knows any other snacks that we should try let me know, I feel like there must be others at Epcot I’m missing but without festival booths during our trip I can’t think of any!

 

[kclark9830]

I always intend to try new snacks...yet I never get around to it LOL! Here's to eating all the yummy goodness.

 

[RN_Mama_inFL]

35 days to go!!!

Attractions

I’m starting to look at some wait times and Genie+ return times on the app during the day but I know it will be busier when we’re there with it being summer so I’m trying to gauge for that as well. But just getting a rough idea…

Because we are so fortunate to be able to go to Disney pretty often, there aren’t many rides that are “must-do’s”, maybe 1 or 2 in each park. And we also don’t seem to be interested in the rides that everyone else is? (Don’t come @ me but we don’t do Jungle Cruise or Peter Pan) We have done these once or twice the last couple years so we are okay missing those.

MK:
- Big Thunder Mountain and 7 Dwarfs Mine Train are tied for favorites of DD so those are on the list. Thunder mtn will be our first LL, SDMT will be $ILL and we will use Rider Switch for both. That’s my little thrill seeker in the back row hands up!!



She has also requested:

• Philarmargic
• Carousel
• Tiana’s if it’s open (doesn’t seem likely)
• Little Mermaid
• Meet Mickey for DS

Epcot:

• Frozen, Frozen, Frozen!!! It’s my DD’s favorite and her only request everytime we go. So this will be our 2nd LL pick in order to ride in the evening before dinner. (Going to try and book about 9:30ish after tapping in to BTMR)
• Nemo and Aquarium. [Somehow we have never done this with the kids! For some reason we usually by pass all the stuff in the front and go straight to World Showcase. But DH and I had a date day at Epcot recently and decided to explore the area for our upcoming family trip (for Science). The aquarium is awesome! Our kids will love it and I feel bad that we haven’t done it sooner. We didn’t ride the Nemo ride but I know they’ll like it so we’ll do that too. DS has been watching Nemo and Dory a lot lately so he will be in heaven!]
• Soarin’ for DH and DD. [Again something we’ve never done with DD. It had a short wait while we were in the area on our date day so we decided to ride it (for science). It was cool, I don’t need to do it again, I get a little motion sickness, so I will hang back with DS and let DH and DD ride bc I know she will enjoy it]
• Moana journey of water. This will be fun and probably a challenge to get them out of it!! We explored this once without the kids as well and it’s such a cool addition. Love the huge Te Fiti too!

Hollywood Studios:

• Mickey/Minnie Runaway Railway. We love this ride so much and we can all ride together so it’s a win.
• Slinky Dog Dash. Don’t know if you picked up on this yet but DD is a thrill junkie! Loves every coaster she’s done. (This will be 1st LL)
• Toy Story Mania
• Alien Saucers

We are not super Star Wars people so we can focus on the other stuff. Also we did MFSR with DD once and she didn’t really like it so no need.


Animal Kingdom:

• Flight of Passage. I did this once by myself while my DH watched DD when she was about 2. We planned to do rider switch and take turns riding but she ended up getting cranky so he never got to ride. So we will buy an ILL for this because I’m dying for him to experience it. I’m not sure if DD will be ok on this? She’s only 6 but very tall like 48”. Anybody bring a 6yo on FOP with success?

This is the day we drive home so not buying Genie+. If we get on Navi river, great. If not, no biggie. Same with safari. I think my DD would love Everest so we’ll play that by ear. We just like walking around looking at the animals and enjoying the ambiance. Oh and catching FOTLK!!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more

 

[DLo]

Oops duplicate post

 

[RN_Mama_inFL]

32 days left!!!

How early is too early to start packing??
I have been organizing some of our clothes and ears that I know we will bring. As well as some of the items I purchased recently to use on our trip.

Trying to think of anything might need/enjoy having for the kids. So far I’ve got:
​

- Bubble wands (from last trip) and batteries
- Portable fans and cooling towels
- Popcorn bucket*
- Snack containers
- hand sanitizer
- portable phone battery

*side tangent on our popcorn bucket: We surprised our daughter during spring break since we didn’t get to do a vacation with tickets to Cirque du Soleil Drawn to Life! It was so incredible, if you’ve never done it, you have to add it to your plans next time you’re in the area. My daughter loved it so much. Anyway, we got our first popcorn bucket there and I love it I think it is so unique and now brings up a special memory

I also recently read someone talking about their trip and they linked an inflatable bed they used for their toddler. I ended up buying one to see if our son will like it. We have always done pack n play or crib but I just don’t think he’s comfortable in those anymore and our last trip over Christmas he slept TERRIBLE and ended up in bed with us so I’m willing to try something new. This pic is from Amazon.


Everytime I think my packing list is complete things keep popping up and it keeps growing!! Other than the park necessities/obvious stuff…send me your must-have items for Disney!!​

 

[RN_Mama_inFL]

I don’t know about you…but I’m feelin 22!

22 days away that is!!



Somehow we’re only about 3 weeks away and now my excitement is slowly becoming a little more like nervousness. (What am I forgetting to buy/pack? Do we have everything? When should I start packing? What if it pours rain every day?) Thanks Anxiety.


(anyway else excited for Inside Out 2?!)

Anyway- let’s talk CLOTHES! For our past trips, I’ve always had a rough plan of our daily outfits in an effort to have them somewhat color coordinated for pictures. (I’ve actually done this since I was a kid) Only one day on my daughter’s 5th birthday did we have complete matching shirts which was fun but seems like a waste when we won’t wear those shirts ever again because they were so specific. This trip I’m planning a little more “themed” days for our outfits and pretty much have everything nailed down except for our departure day at AK.

So…first day: Arrival and Epcot

When I asked a couple months ago, DD declared her current favorite character is Princess Jasmine. So we are going to try and meet Jasmine at Epcot in the Morocco pavilion and so DD NEEDS to have an awesome Jasmine outfit.

I went on over to Esty and got her some adorable Jasmine-inspired ears. I then went back and forth on a couple different dresses but they were either out of stock or way too expensive. I saw that shopDisney had a Jasmine pants/top set that looked really nice and was normally $49.99. It did end up going on sale to $34.99 and then I waited a little while longer and they had a save an additional 30% off sale items going on PLUS free shipping! So I snagged it for about $23!! And her little crown was only $7. Score!
((side note: She has also been asking for her very own 1st loungefly and we kept telling her maybe for her next birthday. Well during the same shopDisney sale I ended up finding her a beautiful one for $40 and am holding onto it until her birthday!))

This is the only outfit that is more costume-like and not “bounding”. The rest of our clothes will be much more practical with active/dry fit style materials and comfort forward. Because, summer.

I’m planning on doing a subtle Anna disneybound outfit the first day. I bought these ears recently in Epcot and already had the blue top and black skirt. Now looking at pictures of Anna, I’m realizing I really should have done a blue skirt and black top. Oops. Oh well!

DH is pretty basic but it’s a pretty color that won’t clash too much. I’m still working out what DS will wear. If anybody has ideas send them my way.




Next day is MK day so we are going more classic Mickey/Fab 5 and princesses for DD. Love how colorful it all looks together. I didn’t get a picture of it but my DH will be in a light blue drifit shirt with a small Mickey outline on the chest.




For Hollywood studios we are embracing Toy Story Land! I found this super cute sets for the kids on Etsy that are a very soft and stretchy material. crop top and skirt for DD and shirt for DS. They had this really cute pattern of all the Toy Story characters on it. Then I ordered DD some ears in a Bo Peep inspired color scheme. I then jumped on the Halara bandwagon for myself. This dress has become super popular in the parks and after receiving it, I can see why! So comfy and soft and active but still cute. I ordered it in the royal blue and decided I can do a subtle Aliens from Toy Story outfit. This dress and ears I had made in lime green. My vision is very subtle as I didn’t want to spend $$$$$ but I think it will all look cute walking around Toy Story land. Hopefully we can get a picture with Woody and Jessie! DH is going to wear the golf polo with the little Woody on the chest.




And that’s all I’ve got so far! Need ideas for Animal Kingdom! We are having breakfast at Tusker House to meet Mickey and the gang so maybe something with them?