My latest attempt at a complete Trip Report...WE R BACK! Sept 2014 TR! 10/31 UPDATE

THE PLANS...an UPDATE

So as I mentioned, I cancelled our LeCellier ADR. Just looking at my food budget is just...wow. :eek:

Day 1: Travel day. We will get the kids out of school around 1pm, hit the road soon after as the airport will take us a minimum hour plus on a GOOD traffic day and we are in DC traffic...at rush hour...so wish us luck! Our flight departs around 5pm. Provided we arrive at MCO on time at 7pm, we will hit the ground, head to get our rental car and drive directly to...the Magic Kingdom! No passing GO, no collecting $200 for us. I would love to get in there for the last hour of the park. Minimum we can hopefully catch one of the last rides of the evening on 7DMT. Otherwise at least catch the Castle Lights show and Wishes! What a way to start a vacay! After that, we can then head to Shades of Green and checkin there and if we are still awake enough...maybe over to the Polynesian for some adult beverages! :lmao:

Day 2: MK and F&W: This is EE for MK day, so we need to be there early. We are early risers anyway, so we can grab a quick bit at Shades or wait and get something at the MK. I'm gonna miss the Main Street Bakery for sure, but I think the new Starbucks there still serves some food? I'm not a coffee drinker, but the other adults are and may need it! :rotfl: I have lunch plans for us at The Plaza. After that, we may just hop the monorail over to EPCOT for the rest of the day. We have some FP+ reservations for afternoon and we'll hit a few F&W booths too! Once we've had our fill there, I'd love to try to head to Port Orleans and catch Yeehaa Bob that night. Never seen him, heard great things. It's on our NEW-TO-TRY list just like 7DMT.

Day 3: HS MK Frozen Fireworks: This is our Hollywood Studios day, so plan to head there in the morning. We'll get in a few rides and then take a break for pool or waterpark, weather permitting. I have my ONE and ONLY FP+ reservation for all 7 of us for 7DMT at 5pm this day, so if we haven't had the chance to ride it yet (Wed or Thurs) then we'll head over to MK quickly to get in that ride. I'm honestly hoping we don't have to do that. If we can catch 7DMT at park opening on Day 2, and then do it again at night for MNSSHP I think we'll be okay. Dinner that night might be OKTOBERFEST, as Shades of Green is having a Bavarian Buffet. We then need to plan to head BACK to HS sometime that even to experience the Frozen Fireworks, since they are only going on Fri/Sat/Sun.

Day 4: AK Waterpark Illuminations: This is our Animal Kingdom day. EE is one of our favorite rides. I think we'd like to do this a few times...and of course the Safari. Anything else is a bonus. We have lunch plans at Sanaa this day, so we'll head there around 12:30pm. After that it's back to either a waterpark or our pool. That evening we have a late reservation at Rose and Crown, just for drinks and dessert as my DH loves their Sticky Toffee Pudding! Illuminations is at 10pm this evening so we are hoping to catch that while eating and drinking at Rose and Crown. I'm still not totally sold on this plan. I appear to be the only one that is very fond of Illuminations. Nobody else ever seems to want to see it on our trips except me. So we'll see if this sticks. There are always more F&W booths to hit for drinks and dessert. :rotfl:

Day 5: HS MNSSHP: I'm torn here. I was thinking this would be another HS day, but maybe we'd just do MK since it's a party day so low crowds all day. We could do stuff there in the morning, take a break for lunch and the pool or a waterpark, then return that evening for MNSSHP. I'd like to get a big meal in before the party so we don't have to stop and eat while there, other than maybe a snack or two. This is our last night, so we want to do it right!

Day 6: EPCOT & Homebound: Rise and shine and pack up our stuff...time to check out of the hotel. We have a late flight, so we still get all day to enjoy a park or two, so I'm thinking more Food and Wine at EPCOT. I have lunch plans at Via Napoli, but maybe we'll drop them as that just eats up more park time. Our flight is at about 7pm, so I'm sure DH will want to hit the road by 4pm or so. We arrive back at our home airport at 9pm.

 
Can't believe that it's almost time for you to start your vacation! My friend is leaving on Sunday night for her first WDW trip (and F&W) so am anxious to find out how she loves it when she gets back.

Your schedule looks great - lots of highlights. Hope you get to ride 7DMT a couple of times. pixiedust:
 
Can't believe that it's almost time for you to start your vacation! My friend is leaving on Sunday night for her first WDW trip (and F&W) so am anxious to find out how she loves it when she gets back.

Your schedule looks great - lots of highlights. Hope you get to ride 7DMT a couple of times. pixiedust:

Thanks for reading! :). I know I can't believe we only have three more days until our trip. Just. So. Excited. :cool1:

I will do my best to do a little reporting while I am there. I do use Twitter too if you want to follow: disneyholic
 
I LIED. :( Yes it's true. I told you all my last trip to WDW was November 2012. It was not. If you check my signature you'll see we were there I n January 2013. Yeah another TR I never finished. So our time between visits has been about 20 months...and not 22 months.

That one was a short trip too. We left on January 24th...in the snow...and returned January 29th. It was the first time we got to eat at BOG for lunch. We rode The Little Mermaid. We saw the Belle's Enchanted Tales show. It had been nine weeks since our last trip but we had to get out of the cold MD weather. It was fun.

And we had our first Disneyland adventure as a family in August 2013. That was fun. Plus TWO Disney cruises: Sept 2013 on the Wonder (just DH and myself for our 15 year anniversary) and Jan 2014 on the Magic....all 7 of us...a FABULOUS trip. One of my favorite vacations!

So we have seen Mickey and friends. However not at WDW in a while. I really hope I can get everybody in line to meet Mickey at MK and have them experience talking Mickey. It is the ONE surprise I have in store. I hope it works out.

Today will need to be a packing day. I have two busy evenings of tennis Monday and Tuesday right now so I need to get stuff packed today.


 
I'm now counting my trip down in HOURS! In just 60 hours or so we should be landing in Orlando!!! :cool1: :cool1:

Quick update on trip-related stuff from over the weekend.

THE GOOD: I decided to go ahead and purchase Memory Maker for our trip. We really enjoy having the ride photos and my youngest son (who is notorious for NOT wanting to ride things at the last minute) has promised me he'll go on Tower of Terror at least once! Those are great photos, and with the video enhancement...should be even better! :)

THE BAD: Ugh...frustration with Chase regarding my Disney Rewards dollars from this weekend. So I had about $244 in Disney rewards available on my Disney Chase Visa. I already have a Disney Rewards card that expires in December and I've used it several times in the past. I transferred those rewards over to my card last week, and just to make sure I called yesterday to verify the balance. Only the balance was $136 and not $144! :scared1:

I called them up and after speaking to three different people (senior representative #2 dropped my call and I had to call back) they could not determine what had happened. The strange thing is that I am exactly $108 short, and that just happens to be the last amount I had on the card back in August 2013...when I last used it. Before our August 2013 Disneyland trip, I made three transfers to the Disney Rewards card that totalled $108, and during our trip to Disneyland I used up that $108 as a partial payment to upgrade our Disneyland park hopper tickets while at the park.

So I'm sure it's no coincidence that something got messed up, and somehow the card was showing a negative balance of $108 when I transferred my $244 to it. Of course, the card can't have a NEGATIVE balance! :confused3 That last answer I got was that they would look into it and contact me in 7-10 business days, but of course I'll be home from my trip by that time so there's a good chance I won't get to use my Disney Rewards (or at least $108 of them) for this upcoming trip. This does NOT make me very happy as you can imagine. :mad:

Anyway, that's the latest update. Kids are getting excited, I've already started packing and the kids will hopefully get packed today. The most important thing, as I've told them: RAINCOATS! I know we'll get those Florida showers, but we can managed that as long as we have our rainjackets to keep us all dry. I've also packed a few Disney ponchos just in case. ;)

I'm already worried this trip will just go by way too fast for my liking, but we'll do our best to make the most of it! :)
 
And then, there were TWO
So I really want to enjoy the parks this time. And I really don't want to get tied to ADRs for this trip. And so...I've cancelled two more ADRs for our trip...and we are down to TWO. We still have lunch at Sanaa and Rose & Crown Pub for drinks and dessert, but R&C may soon be on the chopping block as well. :)

We really haven't had the chance to explore many counter service options at MK. I like The Plaza...but really it was more for the milkshakes and I know it will be too much food. I'm thinking we could try Tortuga Tavern or Pinnochio Village Haus as something new. The flatbreads at PVH sound good.

If we really want to relax and sitdown with milkshakes, we may just head over to Whispering Canyon Cafe for lunch. We haven't been there in a LONG LONG time...like I think we did breakfast and we had ONE kid! :lmao: I think it would be a better option, especially since we don't plan on sticking around MK all day on Thursday anyway. Maybe we just head over to EPCOT for F&W for lunch AND dinner. :)

The other ADR I gave up was Via Napoli at EPCOT. It is our last day at EPCOT. I don't know if we want a long meal and if we do...there are plenty of options there. Sunshine Seasons would be fine. Any other counter service would be fine. It's a chance to try some new stuff. :)

This will hopefully help cut down on my food budget a little bit more. After all, even with counter the kids can split something and save room for dessert. Or they can get snacks...Mickey Pretzels are a good meal right? :rotfl:

I know we just can't do a fast paced trip, and we really want to do a few hours in the parks and then slow it down with a meal or time at the pool. Having ADRs means rushing to get to them. I just don't want to worry about that while on vacay. Sanaa is the one we won't give up at all though...for sure.


 
T-MINUS ONE DAY!! :cool1: :cool1:

Hard to believe we are just over 24 hours away from our trip...and yet there is still much to be done at home to prepare. I'd like to get some more cleaning done around the house before we leave. It's always good to return to a clean house.

I had the best intentions of doing some cleaning yesterday when I got home. Then I hit the couch. Then I had homework battles with my 5th grader. Then I took a nap. :blush:

I got up in time to fix everybody dinner...or help really. I fixed some shrimp and texas toast with cheese. Kids fixed themselves mac and cheese and ramen noodles and shared those...with the bread. They declared it the BEST MEAL EVER...well almost. :lmao: There was that one time we had ice cream for dinner! :rotfl:

Then I had to run out the door and play tennis, so I had to have them promise me to put themselves to bed on time because my husband was at happy hour with some coworkers and I didn't know when he would return. The older two (6th and 9th graders) put their 5th grade brother to bed and read him a story...yes he can read by himself but they were nice like that. :goodvibes They put themselves to bed also and my husband came home at 9:30pm and they were all in bed. I arrived around 10pm...and then showered and went to bed myself. :)

This morning I emptied out all of our garbage cans and cleaned the cat litter so it all went out in today's curbside trash pickup. I still want to get all of our floors vacuumed before we go also. However today I work late and then get home just in time...to head off to another tennis match. My legs are REALLY killing me from four days in a row of tennis playing. My 40+ year old body is just not handling this stuff as well as it used to, especially when I do it several days in a row. :blush:

Anyway, on the Disney planning front, nothing has changed so far from yesterday. I'm reading as much as I can about F&W Festival to try to figure out a plan for what I want to eat and drink while there. Hopefully it won't be too bad. I still have no idea if my Disney Rewards balance was restored, but I've had no communication to say so so I guess not. :furious:

I'm mostly packed and the kids still need to pack today. We've got to be ready to go by tonight. Tomorrow will be a crazy afternoon! I'll work from about 6am to 12:30pm, pick up the older two kids from school and head home. They will just have time to get changed out of their uniforms and grab their travel stuff and we'll head out the door to the airport, with my in-laws in the car with us. Hopefully DC traffic will be kind to us! :moped:

 
It's almost time for you to start your long awaited vacation! Hope you get your Disney Rewards $$ back so you don't have to stress about that while on vacation. I haven't heard from my friend who is there now (arrived early Mon morning staying at AKV first visit to WDW) so wish I could tell you how the weather's been and the crowd levels.

By the time I hop on the comp tomorrow night you'll be in WDW - so excited for you!
 
It's almost time for you to start your long awaited vacation! Hope you get your Disney Rewards $$ back so you don't have to stress about that while on vacation. I haven't heard from my friend who is there now (arrived early Mon morning staying at AKV first visit to WDW) so wish I could tell you how the weather's been and the crowd levels.

By the time I hop on the comp tomorrow night you'll be in WDW - so excited for you!

THANKS!!! I read a few reports this morning about people there now and all I'm reading is RAIN RAIN RAIN!!! :sad2: Not just the typical Florida shower passing through, but light rain and then hours of rain! I sure hope we can get in MNSSHP for this trip, even if it's in the rain. :)

I'll be on a plane and ready to land in just about 12 hours!!! :thumbsup2


Have a GREAT TRIP!:cheer2::dance3:
Must be a great time of year to be at WDW!:thumbsup2:

THANKS! Again not so sure how great it will be based on my reply above and the RAIN RAIN RAIN! Still that might keep the crowds nice and low and we know we'll have a good time no matter what! :) Maybe we'll just hit a waterpark...in the rain! :rotfl2:

 
TODAY IS THE DAY!!! :cool1: :cool1: :cool1:
So we are all packed for the most part, and the kids will be heading to school this morning. I'm sure they are like this: :dance3:

Yesterday was last minute cleaning up at home. We return on a Monday night and then it's business as usual for the rest of that week with school and work. :crazy2:

I did online checkin for my flight yesterday...from my phone...so awesome is technology! I have my electronic boarding pass and my husband has his and the kids since they are all flying using his frequent flier miles. I got the TSA Pre-check which means I don't have to take out all my stuff...or take off my shoes!! :yay: They were not so lucky! :) So at least I know I'll get through security quickly. :lmao:

So I will leave work in the early afternoon, get everybody from school, head home, pack up the car and head out to the airport! I'll try to check in from there if I have time! :thumbsup2
 
So I am live from Disney but fading really fast. We had a great bug long day at EPCOT and MK today. Quick recap for you:
Crowds: Not bad at all. The headliner rides of course bad long waits (Test Track, Soarin both over 40 or 60 mins this evening) and despite visiting an EMH park (not recommended usually) in the morning we did OK. We walked into MK a few mins after rope drop on an EMH morning, walked back to 7DMT and waited about 35 mins. It went fast and cute coaster but everybody said 'that's it? after. Good news is I can drop my FP for it tomorrow making somebody happy I am sure.

Weather: overcast in the morning but not sticky...very nice. Around 5pm the skies opened up at EPCOT so we ducked into Maelstrom (showing 40 min wait...reality was about 25) and got in one last ride. Mostly did F&W booths but stopped in at La Cava and got a table with chips and dips and DH and MIL did tequila flight. Left park by 8pm.

FP+ and MBs: So far so good. HS tomorrow should be interesting with no FP for TSM so we will try early again.

OK so so tired now. Will try to do another update tomorrow.


 
Yay for your first post while at Disney! Seems like you got to do a lot considering the crowd levels. Glad the weather wasn't sticky or too hot - thanks for sharing your first day :)
 
First days are usually filled with so much anticipation and excitement!:yay:
Sounds like you are having a great time so far...:thumbsup2
 
Yay for your first post while at Disney! Seems like you got to do a lot considering the crowd levels. Glad the weather wasn't sticky or too hot - thanks for sharing your first day :)

Thanks! Yeah at MK we managed 7DMT, Peter Pan, HM, BTMRR, Splash, TTA and Laugh Factory plus lunch at Pinocchio. Longest wait was 7DMT of course. We skipped Pirates when we saw the long line there walking by (I think 30 mins) and had to skip SM for the same reason...which kids weren't happy about. My FIL was 'THAT GUY' which was funny. Kids had the be dragged into Monsters...since it wasn't a RIDE. :)

First days are usually filled with so much anticipation and excitement!:yay:
Sounds like you are having a great time so far...:thumbsup2

Thanks! Yes they are. We are doing well but our feet? Not so much. Plan today is HS morning to early afternoon. No FP+ booked. So far we have only used ONE FP+ reservation.it was Soarin at 4pm yesterday which was great. I cancelled 3 MK FP+ for today including 7DM so hopefully somebody was happy. I may try to make some more at HS while in park today.

Oh and wanted to note I did get Memory Maker and what a cool thing that has been. Four of us rode Splash, did nothing and said the photo in my account that afternoon. Now finding again where to view those pics is another story. I need to search again. Oh and our 7DMT pics also there autoMAGICally.:yay:

Will try to do another update tonight. Hoping to catch Frozen fireworks this evening. Really my only goal for today.
 
Coming to you live from the Sassagoula River. Just taking a leisurely ride to kill some time. Crowds today at HS were insane despite it being a low crowd day. We managed to hit the big rides thanks to FP+ and a rope drop and 40 minute wait at TSM. Crazy. We left around 2:30pm or so after riding RnRC with our last FP+ which was three different reservations for 7 people with overlapping times!

Hoping to catch some entertainment next so I'll let you know how it goes!
 
Two more full days to go here. We have done quite a bit so far and handled the rain just fine. Sure it sucks to carry ponchjos and raincoats all day but worth it when the rain hits.

We had a nice day at HS despite the crowds. Rode TSM standby first thing and then used our three FP+ for Star Tours, TOT and RnRC. TOT had a 50 minute wait when we used our passes around 10:30am. Star Tours was 20 minutes when we used our passes. RnRC was 60 mins at 1:50pm when we used our three different FP+ reservations fir our party of 7. Other than that we saw Muppets and had lunch at Backlot. We left the park by 2:30pm and chilled in our hotel until dinner.

Weather today: sunny and hot this morming, light to medium rain moved in around 1pm and even had some loud thunder. Rest of day was overcast with light sprinkles off and on so we nixed any more park time. Instead we caught Yeehaa Bob after dinner and our river cruise. He was great but we didn't have good enough seats for it. Enjoyed it even less thanks to the constantly complaining 14 year old boy. :mad: Teenagers are just...well I have no good words. Ughh.

Tomorrow is a planned AK day in the morning with no other real plans for afternoon or evening. Will we finally hit a pool or waterpark? Just wait and see I guess! :confused3
 
Hope that the SUN comes out BRIGHT today for you!:goodvibes

If your teenage son is like mine was at that age, waterpark equals FUN!
I love them too!:) GREAT memories for me is when younger DS and I "bond" at a waterpark and older DS and DH golf for the morning! :banana:

ENJOY!!!:thumbsup2
 
Hope that the SUN comes out BRIGHT today for you!:goodvibes

If your teenage son is like mine was at that age, waterpark equals FUN!
I love them too!:) GREAT memories for me is when younger DS and I "bond" at a waterpark and older DS and DH golf for the morning! :banana:

ENJOY!!!:thumbsup2
Thanks so much...but unfortunately your hope for me did not happen.

We started early at AK this morning. We managed two rides back to back on EE with no wait. Then it was off to Dinoland where we tackled Primeval Whirl. Next over to Dinosaur to use our overlapping FP+ ressies. I will say this..up until this morning FP+ has been fine. However sometime this morning it seems some of our Dinosaur ressies just disappeared. DH and I both checked MDE and we were definitely missing a set of 3 ressies. So we did manage to rebook them and it worked out but it was irritating. After Dinosaur we did another EE ride (with FP+) after a quick break for Mickey ice cream bars. Let me say this was strange but I KNoW the guy at the ice cream cart did not charge me enough. It bothered me so much that I had DH go back over to him as we ate and try to fix it. The guy at the cart insisted it was right. However I know that 4 Mickey ice cream bars (at $4 each) plus two bottles of soda is more than $16.50. It is like the sodas were free. We tried to fix it but the guy insisted it was right and we had no receipt. We just dropped it. We tried.

We headed over to the safari but it was an hour wait. We had lunch at Sana'a at 12:50pm and it was 11:30am. DH said no way he was risking missing Sanaa. So he and the rest of the party went to FOW while DD11 and I hit Kali River Rapids. While in line...it rained. But we were going on a water ride.

Anyway after the ride we left and headed to Sanaa where we arrived 10 minutes early and still were seated 20 minutes or so past our reservation...for lunch. But it was good and our server was great.

So now we are taking another afternoon hotel break. Kids are resting and vegging with TV and DH is out cold. Our current plan is a late night at MK since it seems nobody wants to go back to HS so I will miss the Frozen fireworks. :sad1: MK is open until after midnight (evening EMH) and we have no early plans tomorrow. We may grab a late dinner or snack at MK while there and then just ride stuff. There is still hope for a water park visit tomorrow morning but we will see. Tomorrow is also late night at MK for MNSSHP.

So that is all. Weather really looks overcast and yucky like more rain could break out again. So we will see how it goes. Other option is Disney quest which I am sure DD will not enjoy but the boys will love. Boys also want to do Sorcerers of MK which DD doesn't care about. So more MK time tonight might be good.
 

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