Double your Trips, Double your Fun - June/September 2019 PTRs -No kids allowed!! *updated 6/7

xlsm

Snow White
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
Good morning!!

It's time for another XLSM pre-trip report!!

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And it's a DOUBLE pre-trip report!!

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I guess I'm cutting it a little close since the first trip is only 25 days away. Oops.

If you've never followed along with me before, I am the S of xlsm, a 30something (later and later 30 something every year :sad:) wife and mother of two boys (aged 15 and 13 currently, a freshman and an 8th grader - for a couple more weeks!).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/89161658@N04/

I love characters and rides and food and shows and fireworks and...well, you get the idea. I love it all!

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Here is the whole gang last New Year's Eve:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/89161658@N04/

(that TR can be found HERE)

The kids are staying home for both of these trips, so it's an adults only Disney year!!

Trip Number One is with my DH in June

https://www.flickr.com/photos/89161658@N04/

We're staying at the Yacht Club and have lots of extras planned!

and Trip Number Two is with my good friend @Raeven !!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/89161658@N04/

(I'm looking forward to having better pictures of us after our trip, LOL!)
We met here on the Dis via pre-trip reports, and in person on my solo visit in May 2017.

This trip will be in September, and is going to have so many firsts for me! We're splitting the trip in two, with the first part at Universal/Islands of Adventure...and my first ever Halloween Horror Nights! The second part is Disney (with MNSSHP), and a stay at the new Gran Destino tower at Coronado Springs.

I'm looking forward to sharing plans with everyone!! It keeps me on track, I need all the help with that I can get! :rotfl:

Stick around and see what we have planned!

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Following along! (Of course) :wave:

When I saw this I was like how didn’t I notice she started one too, and then I saw you literally just posted it :rotfl:

Very very excited to take you to HHN and to stay at the new tower and to ride the new HP ride and for all the food and everything!

We need much better pictures than we got that night, mine are lit so weirdly too and I just want to reach in and smooth down my hair :lmao:

And I can’t wait to hear about your YC stay too that’s one of my favorite resorts!
 


I'm here! So many exciting plans! Can't wait to hear about all of your extras in June, and exciting that you're staying at the new Gran Destino tower!
 


Popping over from your last TR. Looking forward to reading more
 
Chapter One: In the Good Ol' Summer Time (June Trip)

Ah, summer. That long awaited time following months of getting up early, yelling up the stairs at the kids to get in the shower, hurry up, put on shoes, and BRUSH YOUR TEETH!! For me it also means lots of meetings (sooo many meetings :faint::faint: ), event planning, and paperwork. I am looking forward to days full of nothing!

I'm also definitely looking forward to a week away with DH! So let's get into arrival day/first day plans (or lack thereof)

One thing I haven't mentioned yet...we live in a zoo! Well, not really, but it feels that way sometimes. We have four dogs (a long haired chihuahua (Penny), a shih tzu (Olive), a lhasa apso (Howie), and a weirdo mix breed (Wilson)), a parakeet (named Soap, b/c he's white like Ivory soap...13 year old kid logic), Two bettas (Captain Raymond Holt (mine), and an as yet unnamed flashy red one that DH picked out), and a leopard gecko (Mozart - belongs to my 15 year old). I tell you all of that because it means we have to have someone come stay at our house while we're gone. Once again it will be my in-laws. If you've followed along with me before, you know there's always last minute drama. I figured I'd bring them up now just in case she springs something on us in the next couple of weeks :rotfl:

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We only booked our flights three weeks or so ago, and ended up adding a night to the beginning. We are flying out of a small airport about an hour from our house and staying at the MCO Hyatt. After what happened to us on our trip this past Dec/Jan, I like knowing there's a cushion before Disney check in!! (if you haven't read my previous TR, we had a flight delay and ended up staying overnight in Atlanta and not knowing where all of our luggage was!!)

For once we're not planning to get up too early after our night at MCO (I say that, but we will probably be excited and get up early anyway!), because DH won't have tickets for our first full day (I have an annual pass) and there's no rush to get anywhere.



So, we'll take the Magical Express to the Yacht Club


(photo from our December 2016 trip)

When we booked, I just got DH a six day hopper from Sam's Club, with set dates. We weren't planning on 6/9 being a full day, so I set the ticket to start on the 10th. That means the 9th is a day when we don't have any set plans at all.

Things we've considered:

- Just hanging out at Stormalong Bay and then having dinner somewhere in the area, maybe throw in some mini golf
- Going to Disney Springs and maybe The Void



If we go to Disney Springs, we haven't decided if we're going to do a sit down meal or just wander and graze. Some things we want to try: Jaleo, Aristocrepes, BB Wolf's Sausage Co, The Ganachery, and The Daily Poutine. Your guess is as good as mine about what we'll end up doing!! Our last trip taught me that I can be flexible and relax. Who knew??

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That's all for now, but may get our first day plans up in just a little bit!!

 
The Void is super fun! I would definitely recommend that if you head to Disney Springs at some point for dinner! We've done both Star Wars and Wreck It Ralph and both were fun to do!
 
I'm here!! And first! Woo Hoo!

Yay, first!! :dogdance::dogdance:

Following along! (Of course) :wave:

When I saw this I was like how didn’t I notice she started one too, and then I saw you literally just posted it :rotfl:

Very very excited to take you to HHN and to stay at the new tower and to ride the new HP ride and for all the food and everything!

We need much better pictures than we got that night, mine are lit so weirdly too and I just want to reach in and smooth down my hair :lmao:

And I can’t wait to hear about your YC stay too that’s one of my favorite resorts!

I figured if I didn't start one now, I never would, and then I would be sad I didn't have all my thoughts down in one place. I always think I don't need to do one, and then I overthink and second guess all my plans, and it helps me to talk through it. I'm Dis-board co-dependent, LOL!!!

I'm sooooo excited about HHN, especially with the announcement of the Classic Monsters house, which is basically my dream and what I would choose if I could pick anything. It was meant to be, haha!

The boys are kind of irritated we're staying at YC b/c they want to use the pool, LOL!! We briefly considered switching to the Grand b/c my AP discount had a really good deal, but Leyton looked at us like he was contemplating a pretty serious crime, so I guess he feels pretty strongly about us staying at the GF without him :rotfl::rotfl: He likes fancy stuff, lol

I'm here! So many exciting plans! Can't wait to hear about all of your extras in June, and exciting that you're staying at the new Gran Destino tower!

Welcome, welcome!! I tried to tone down our extras, but it's so hard. We feel like since it's just the two of us, it's still cheaper b/c the kids aren't there and we're paying for 2 rather than 4...Disney math, what can I say?? :rotfl2:

Joining in!! Can't wait to hear what you have planned for both trips! Your next one is so soon!!!

It really hit me yesterday how close it is...less than a month, I am not sure how that happened!! I've been so busy it really snuck up on me

I am here and following along!

:welcome:

I’m here! Looking forward to hearing the plans!

Hello hello and welcome aboard!! :sail: (that felt appropriate given the Yacht Club thing, LOL!!)

Yay! I'm here!!

party:party:

Popping over from your last TR. Looking forward to reading more

Welcome back!! Brave soul coming back for more, lol!!

Here! Watching for the June plans since we overlap!

Yay!! Yes, hopefully we'll find a time we can say hello. I'm going to try and fly through our daily plans on here since I waited so long to start!!
 
The Void is super fun! I would definitely recommend that if you head to Disney Springs at some point for dinner! We've done both Star Wars and Wreck It Ralph and both were fun to do!

DH really wants to do the Star Wars one (so do I, but I'm more open to either), so it's pretty high on the list...After typing everything out, I think I want to try to combine all of the stuff - like maybe mini golf, then a couple hours at the pool, then heading to DS for food and The Void. Although that kind of ruins my "relaxing" plans :rotfl::rotfl: I will never be super chill :sad:
 
One thing I haven't mentioned yet...we live in a zoo! Well, not really, but it feels that way sometimes. We have four dogs (a long haired chihuahua (Penny), a shih tzu (Olive), a lhasa apso (Howie), and a weirdo mix breed (Wilson)), a parakeet (named Soap, b/c he's white like Ivory soap...13 year old kid logic), Two bettas (Captain Raymond Holt (mine), and an as yet unnamed flashy red one that DH picked out), and a leopard gecko (Mozart - belongs to my 15 year old). I tell you all of that because it means we have to have someone come stay at our house while we're gone. Once again it will be my in-laws. If you've followed along with me before, you know there's always last minute drama. I figured I'd bring them up now just in case she springs something on us in the next couple of weeks :rotfl:
That is a zoo! I have enough drama trying to get someone just to watch my 2 girls!

So, we'll take the Magical Express to the Yacht Club

We just stayed here, and LOVED IT!!!! Have you stayed her before?

What about dinner at one of the restaurants on the Boardwalk, it would be a nice short walk over?
 
Good morning!!

I actually started typing up Chapter One yesterday and then couldn't get my act together to finish it in time :scared: Today I have some time, so I want to get into first park day plans. I have WAY too many things crammed in, so I'm curious how we'll end up spending the day. Without further ado...

Chapter Two: Experimental Prototype Community of Animals, Lights, and Dessert

(EPCALD is just not as catchy as Epcot, is it??)

So as you can guess, we're splitting this day between Epcot and Animal Kingdom.

We'll be starting our morning in Epcot, and definitely rope dropping. This is the only day I had any kind of trouble getting the Fast Passes I wanted. In fact, even going back and modifying (and in one moment of experimentation, canceling them and rebooking), I still couldn't get ideal times for anything.

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I'm going to keep the FPs and try to modify them off and on - we have them for Soarin', Living With the Land, and Spaceship Earth.

Here's what my "Our FPs suck and how can I salvage this morning?" plans are:

- Rope Drop at International Gateway
- Ride Frozen standby
- Go to Future World while checking wait time for Spaceship Earth
- Ride Spaceship Earth standby (unless some crazy wait is happening and the wait is problematic)
- If wait time for Soarin' is under 35 minutes (not holding my breath), we'll wait standby and then try to change all of our FPs to Animal Kingdom. If the wait time is longer, we'll keep our pass for it and then try to make some for AK in the evening.
- If we do have to use our FP for Soarin', we'll ride LWTL first and use our FP for that if we need to (the times are back to back). Otherwise we'll just ride LWTL wherever it fits in.


Anyway, that's the current ride strategy.

Things we also want to do but aren't critical b/c we'll be back:

- Club Cool before it closes
- Mouse Gears
- Ralph/Vanellope re-do (in January Vanellope wasn't there, we just met Ralph
)
- The Seas

Things we must do:

- Our lunch ADR at San Angel Inn (1:10pm, DH requested this in January but we had to cancel it b/c of our VIP tour, so it's a must for him this time)
- American Adventure (We have never taken the time for this, but we are doing the Backstage Magic tour later in the trip, so we want to see it before going behind the scenes on the tour)
- Gran Fiesta Tour
- Impressions de France

Things that time factors into:

- Meeting Mulan
- Voices of Liberty


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But wait...there's more!!

After trying to cram alllll that in at Epcot, we'll try to get at least a tiny break at the resort (the lazy river at Stormalong Bay is calling. my. name. Also pool drinks!)

Our evening plans are Animal Kingdom for one main reason: Rivers of Light Dessert Party!!

Full disclosure, Rivers of Light is NOT my favorite show. I saw it in May 2017 on my solo trip with the dining package at Tiffins. I found the seating to be so uncomfortable, and we were really crammed in. I don't want to watch a show where I am literally pressed up against a stranger. Ew. But DH has never seen it, and wants to. Our compromise was the dessert party, which I'm very excited about!! I'm curious if I'll like the show when I'm not basically sitting on my neighbor's lap (slight exaggeration, but seriously, it was so uncomfortable!)

Depending on when we go to Animal Kingdom, I'd like to at least *try* to do the safari. We'll keep an eye on wait times for Dinosaur, Everest, and meeting Mickey and Minnie, but we will be fine even if none of that happens.

What better way to do a first day than just fill it with all the things???

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That is a zoo! I have enough drama trying to get someone just to watch my 2 girls!


We just stayed here, and LOVED IT!!!! Have you stayed her before?

What about dinner at one of the restaurants on the Boardwalk, it would be a nice short walk over?


the animals are a lot of work first thing in the morning, but the dogs are the most needy since they have to go outside. And we do have to keep the tv or music on all the time for the bird if we're not at home. I am constantly talking to it alllll day long, b/c they are social animals. We have emergency back up for all the animals, but since the dogs know the inlaws so well, it's become our go-to plan. We keep saying we're going to get a permanent local sitter for the animals, but we just haven't. I'm good at procrastinating, LOL!

I'm glad to hear you loved the YC!! We've stayed at the Boardwalk before, but never Yacht or Beach. We are really looking forward to it. We've considered dinner at Yachtsman again, or moving our Shula's to that night, or Flying Fish...We should probably start narrowing that down!!
 
Joining in, I've definitely lurked through a previous TR of yours (not creepy I swear!)

I highly recommend doing the Void in DS. I'm not a video game or VR person and we loved the Star Wars one and the Wreck-It Ralph version is high on my list of must-dos.

We're doing the Rivers of Light dessert party in June too! I'm one of the probably 5 people who liked ROL before they took out the people and I'm hoping the new version of the show coming out is good.
 

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