Birthday Adventure in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Sept/Oct 2019 Adults Only PTR Update 9/15!

I know what you mean. It’s tough cause I like them but I’m also a little sick of the sponsored stuff. Happiest Vlogs is starting to get invited to stuff too and those videos seem a little fake. WDW Couple seem to post the least amount of sponsored stuff and I really like them!

Yeah we watch Happiest Vlogs too! I know, its tough because I totally understand WHY they would want to be invited by Disney to do things because it has to be super cool when that happens. And as much as they try to not be biased I'm sure it just happens, especially when you know that if you don't give an honest review it will most likely be your last invite. Its just hard when it feels like its every video lol
 
What an awesome print you found at the garage sale!

Your preliminary plans sound great so far! You will definitely want to go into MNSSHP with some sort of plan- but don't stress about it!!
 
I love all your throw backs in your report. So much fun! I am also going in September to celebrate my birthday! We had decided to do a weekend cruise and I was like DAH was added the day before the cruise ON my birthday (yay!), so we should totally stay at Disney before the cruise. Then it was, lets add a day for Star Wars, then, well gee, there is a Halloween party the day before that. So before I knew it, I had tacked on 3 days before our cruise all part of my birthday extravaganza! I had to stop because my in-laws are watching our kids and we have a trip planned in December. :)
 
That's such a cute print!

You have some GREAT plans so far. I'm not GF, but I've done the Grand Floridian Afternoon Tea before and it is a wonderful way to spend some time!

Thanks! I was super excited when I spotted it and even more excited when she said it was $3!

I’m looking forward to the afternoon tea. Finger sandwiches and tea are my jam.

Yeah we watch Happiest Vlogs too! I know, its tough because I totally understand WHY they would want to be invited by Disney to do things because it has to be super cool when that happens. And as much as they try to not be biased I'm sure it just happens, especially when you know that if you don't give an honest review it will most likely be your last invite. Its just hard when it feels like its every video lol

Yea, I totally don’t blame them at all! I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t do the same but as a viewer it definitely gets old. Everyone says what do you expect for free content but we pay for YouTube red or premium or whatever it’s called so it’s not free. And if we didn’t pay for that, we would be watching ads soooo.

What an awesome print you found at the garage sale!

Your preliminary plans sound great so far! You will definitely want to go into MNSSHP with some sort of plan- but don't stress about it!!

Thanks! I wanna go back out to garage sales this weekend to see what other Disney things we might find.

I think I need to watch some vlogs or read about last years party to get an idea of how to plan for it.

I love all your throw backs in your report. So much fun! I am also going in September to celebrate my birthday! We had decided to do a weekend cruise and I was like DAH was added the day before the cruise ON my birthday (yay!), so we should totally stay at Disney before the cruise. Then it was, lets add a day for Star Wars, then, well gee, there is a Halloween party the day before that. So before I knew it, I had tacked on 3 days before our cruise all part of my birthday extravaganza! I had to stop because my in-laws are watching our kids and we have a trip planned in December. :)

Lol! You sound like us, adding a day here and there. That’s awesome you are going on a cruise! We would like to go again some day but for now, any vacation time or money is going towards WDW.

Luckily our only kid has four legs and my parents love watching him so other than work we don’t have any responsibilities!
 


Hey! I hope everyone has had a good week! We finally sat down and made plans(ish) for this trip. It’s honestly so difficult cause so many things aren’t really set in stone yet, mostly Galaxy’s Edge. It opens in like 2 and a half months and there’s no word on, well, anything. I think that’s how it was for DL too. So we just made plans assuming there’s no reservation system, no virtual que, no After Hours, etc. We really only have a rough draft but really I don’t mind not having every second of every day planned. Here goes:

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(But first! A very bad quality throwback photo. I’m pretty sure that’s my dad to the left in the white hat, blue shirt. If not, then I probably ran up to that man and grabbed his hand cause it sure looks like my dad. Still not any wonderful 90s fashion like I was hoping to see)


Day 0- Friday

We work til almost 8pm this day but there’s a small chance we can skip out a little early. Either way, we are more than likely leaving after work. Pepper will already be at my parents house.

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(Here’s Pepper, btw. I don’t think I have posted a picture of him here on this PTR. He’s our baby and the most unphotogenic dog ever so I will use this picture of him after his surgery when he was still slightly doped up)

We will hopefully be packed the night before and will just need to grab last minute stuff and be on the road around 9-10.



Day 1- Saturday

Assuming we make good timing we should be arriving around 2 pm and I would think our room would be ready. If so, I will try and make Donnie take a nap as he will have been awake for 24+ hours and I’m sure I will have slept for at least 10 hours of the 14 hour road trip. I’m sure he will be too excited to nap and he’s not a napper anyways. Literally all my plans for this day has “maybe” in front of it. The first park will be MK no matter what but when we will get there, what we will do, and how long we will stay remains to be seen. My list of maybes: stay at MK to watch HEA, go to DS to get snacks at Erin McKennas, go to HS to check out Galaxy’s Edge at night. The last one totally depends on what the land’s entry policy will be. I’m sure Donnie will be exhausted no matter what we do so I’m sure we will be asleep semi-early this night.



Day 2- Sunday aka MY BIRTHDAY!

I’m actually not someone who gets super excited about my birthday. Most of my adult years I have had to work and I’m not exactly a party person so any celebration has been dinner out with my family. I am however super pumped to be in Disney on my birthday this year! If we didn’t get to Erin McKennas the day before we will definitely start the day there to get me a birthday treat! We are going back to MK cause how could we not?! It’s a MNSSHP day and I’m 99% sure we are going this day but I haven’t bought tickets yet. We will be going to Grand Floridian for afternoon tea around 3 (my dinner since I eat dinner with the 65+ crowd). We might hop on the monorail to the Poly just cause we love it and I’m sure I will want a dole whip. However I have no idea which characters we want to meet at the party and how early we will have to line up so, as is the theme of this PTR, who knows? Once I have done my research and possibly more info about the party comes out I will make a whole post about it.

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(Another “what we did” post. Now I don’t know if things were actually called this in 1992 or if my mom just made it up kinda like she does with song lyrics. Edit: I googled River Country Cruise and there’s no such thing. That’s definitely Jungle Cruise. “Mars Mission” is Mission to Mars which closed just a year later in 93. She was close on the Carousel. It was Cinderella’s Golden Carousel until 2010 when it got changed to Prince Charming Regal Carousel. I will give her a pass on some others as it looks like she might have left out words to fit each thing on one line)

Coming up: more daily “maybe” plans
 
The first day plans sound good! Afternoon tea and MNSSHP sounds like such an amazing way to spend your birthday!!
 
That sounds like a terrific birthday! I love your plans... Erin McKenna, GF Tea, and MNSSHP is the perfect combination!

As far as characters at MNSSHP goes: Disney announces the entertainment offerings at the beginning of August, but as a general rule, we have to wait until the first MNSSHP arrives to actually find out which characters are going to be out meeting every year. Disney is highkey extremely annoying about it :headache: However, we can speculate that these characters, which have been appearing pretty frequently at MNSSHP over the course of the past few years, will be out:

  • Jack Skellington & Sally
  • The 7 Dwarfs
  • Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger (in their Halloween costumes)
  • Donald, Daisy, Minnie, and Goofy (in their Halloween costumes)
  • Tarzan, Terk, and Jane
  • Cruella De Vil
  • Aladdin & Abu, Jasmine & Genie (switching out in the same location)
  • Jafar (by his lonesome, off to the side of that location)
There are quite a few others, Disney is pretty generous with the characters at this event, but I would be extremely surprised if this entire list specifically didn't make it to the Halloween Party this year.

Jack Skellington & Sally and the 7 Dwarfs are the hardest characters to meet at this party. I recommend making the choice between them, because it's very hard to meet both at the same party. CMs will allow guests with wristbands to enter the queue to meet them as soon as wristbands are distributed, which is around 4:00. By the time the party actually starts at 7, the lines are up to a 2 hour wait.

I would pick one, and then get in line as soon as you're allowed to. The great news about both of these M&Gs is that they're so popular that Disney has started allowing them to meet guests before the party actually starts! Jack & Sally came out an hour and a half before my first MNSSHP started in 2016, and the Dwarfs came out an hour before the party started the second time I went. So you'll still be waiting around 2 hours, but you're not wasting any party time!

The Winnie the Pooh crew is another busy M&G. During the middle of the party, I got in line and waited about an hour and a half. The other characters were really great, I met so many characters at both parties and I don't think I waited more than half an hour for any of the others! I highly recommend Jack Skellington & Sally, Cruella de Vil, and Tarzan, Terk, & Jane! Jack Sparrow is also fun, but he greets day guests in MK now, so you can meet him then as well. Hope this helps!!
 


That sounds like a terrific birthday! I love your plans... Erin McKenna, GF Tea, and MNSSHP is the perfect combination!

As far as characters at MNSSHP goes: Disney announces the entertainment offerings at the beginning of August, but as a general rule, we have to wait until the first MNSSHP arrives to actually find out which characters are going to be out meeting every year. Disney is highkey extremely annoying about it :headache: However, we can speculate that these characters, which have been appearing pretty frequently at MNSSHP over the course of the past few years, will be out:

  • Jack Skellington & Sally
  • The 7 Dwarfs
  • Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger (in their Halloween costumes)
  • Donald, Daisy, Minnie, and Goofy (in their Halloween costumes)
  • Tarzan, Terk, and Jane
  • Cruella De Vil
  • Aladdin & Abu, Jasmine & Genie (switching out in the same location)
  • Jafar (by his lonesome, off to the side of that location)
There are quite a few others, Disney is pretty generous with the characters at this event, but I would be extremely surprised if this entire list specifically didn't make it to the Halloween Party this year.

Jack Skellington & Sally and the 7 Dwarfs are the hardest characters to meet at this party. I recommend making the choice between them, because it's very hard to meet both at the same party. CMs will allow guests with wristbands to enter the queue to meet them as soon as wristbands are distributed, which is around 4:00. By the time the party actually starts at 7, the lines are up to a 2 hour wait.

I would pick one, and then get in line as soon as you're allowed to. The great news about both of these M&Gs is that they're so popular that Disney has started allowing them to meet guests before the party actually starts! Jack & Sally came out an hour and a half before my first MNSSHP started in 2016, and the Dwarfs came out an hour before the party started the second time I went. So you'll still be waiting around 2 hours, but you're not wasting any party time!

The Winnie the Pooh crew is another busy M&G. During the middle of the party, I got in line and waited about an hour and a half. The other characters were really great, I met so many characters at both parties and I don't think I waited more than half an hour for any of the others! I highly recommend Jack Skellington & Sally, Cruella de Vil, and Tarzan, Terk, & Jane! Jack Sparrow is also fun, but he greets day guests in MK now, so you can meet him then as well. Hope this helps!!

OMG! This was super helpful, thank you sooo much! I’m thinking Jack and Sally will be our main meet and greet. As awesome as the 7 Dwarves look, it seems like they are more like a photo opp than an actual meet. And if I don’t meet Jack and Sally my mom will disown me as they are her fave.

It seems like we should probably head over right after Afternoon Tea. Which I thought was at 3 but I just checked and it’s apparently 3:45 so I better move that up. I didn’t know Genie met at the party! That’s going on the list too. Thanks again for all the info!
 
Day 3- Monday

This will be a day to sleep in. The party goes til midnight and I like sleep so this will not be our 6 am extra extra magic hour day. We will probably check out Epcot for Food and Wine. I purposely avoided Epcot our first two days as I have heard Epcot on the weekend during F&W is not where I want to be. I honestly don’t know what there is to do at the festival other than eat and drink so I guess I better research that. We will do our fave rides here and probably leave in the late afternoon. We love Epcot but just aren’t RD-Illuminations people. Speaking of, we have only seen Illuminations once and that was once too many. *ducking from the Illuminations fans* I was honestly just so bored of it so we don’t care to see it before it’s gone. Depending on what we feel like this evening we will either swim or head to DS. And we will be hopefully in bed early since tomorrow will start when it’s still dark.

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(The rainbow tunnel is the #1 thing I remember from this trip!)

Day 4- Tuesday

THIS is the day we are doing 6 am Extra Extra Magic Hours. We have no idea what it will be like at HS. Like do we need to be at the park at 5 am for 6 am EEMH or is arriving just 15 minutes early gonna be good enough? Either way, we are waking up at an ungodly hour to see Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. I think our main goal is going to be Smugglers Run. From the reviews at DL, I think I will be okay motion sickness-wise. I think the lack of 3-D glasses will save me there. I hope we can get into Oga’s Cantina. No, I won’t be drinking at 7 am, but they do have some yummy looking non alcoholic drinks I want to try. Not sure what else we will accomplish before the masses arrive. Here’s where I start to question our plans. I have the same exact plans for this afternoon as yesterday afternoon- swim or DS. Honestly, I will want a nap. As for the evening, we might go to AK to check out the Tree of Life Awakenings and Pandora at night. Or we might go back to HS for Galaxy’s Edge at night. Although it will still be dark at 6 am so that might not be important.

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(The entrance at MGM. I absolutely loved Dinosaurs! And if anyone wants to watch this parade/show/whatever it is, there’s at least one video I found on YouTube.)

Day 5- Wednesday

I think we started getting lazy while planning our days starting around Day 5. My notes say “AK normal time normal stuff. Maybe MK EMH” So I guess what I meant is no early wake ups, just a regular AK day. And ride our regular rides and see our regular shows. Which I will share when things get more detailed. MK has late EMH tonight which will probably be packed because of MNSSHP other nights. We might make it over to see HEA if we haven’t seen it yet. And since the rumor about Country Bears closing is going around, you better believe we will making it a point to go there multiple times this trip. Or we will do literally none of this, who knows?!

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(Postcard from ‘92 although you could never tell. Big Al hasn’t aged at all!)
 
OMG! This was super helpful, thank you sooo much! I’m thinking Jack and Sally will be our main meet and greet. As awesome as the 7 Dwarves look, it seems like they are more like a photo opp than an actual meet. And if I don’t meet Jack and Sally my mom will disown me as they are her fave.

It seems like we should probably head over right after Afternoon Tea. Which I thought was at 3 but I just checked and it’s apparently 3:45 so I better move that up. I didn’t know Genie met at the party! That’s going on the list too. Thanks again for all the info!

No problem!! So happy I could help!!

Your Day 3, 4, and 5 plans sound great, too! Sleeping in after MNSSHP is definitely a smart idea.
 
Your plans sound great. Our October plans have maybe in front of a lot of things also since there's still so many unknowns lol.

I will be so sad if they close Country bears!
 
I finally have my days planned better now, I hope we get to do a SWGE AP event while we are there.

We met Lotso last year and Elvis Stitch! I want to meet the 7 Dwarfs but I don’t know if I want to wait in line!

We met Jack and Sally and loved it, get in line around 4pm and you will be in a good position. They start meeting around 5pm.

I have a Jack Skellington dress for the party this year.
 
Ooh I love your garage sale purchase! :lovestruc

Your plans look great especially for your birthday :thumbsup2

I did the MNSSHP on my last trip and loved it. Looking forward to reading more of your plans :goodvibes
 
Sounds like good plans!! I'll be so sad if they close Country Bear Jamboree!

Thanks! I won’t believe it til I see it. I’m trying to stay optimistic!

Your Day 3, 4, and 5 plans sound great, too! Sleeping in after MNSSHP is definitely a smart idea.

Well I would prefer sleeping in every day but Donnie won’t have that...

Your plans sound great. Our October plans have maybe in front of a lot of things also since there's still so many unknowns lol.

I will be so sad if they close Country bears!

Disney acts like they don’t make us decide what to do 180+ days in advance and we can just show up and do whatever we want, whenever we want!

I finally have my days planned better now, I hope we get to do a SWGE AP event while we are there.

We met Lotso last year and Elvis Stitch! I want to meet the 7 Dwarfs but I don’t know if I want to wait in line!

We met Jack and Sally and loved it, get in line around 4pm and you will be in a good position. They start meeting around 5pm.

I have a Jack Skellington dress for the party this year.

Fingers crossed for the AP preview!

I was just watching a vlog from last year and 7 Dwarves only had a wait time of 45 minutes later in the party so maybe the trick is to try later! I changed my Afternoon Tea ADR to earlier so we can be at MK by 4.

We had such a hard time figuring out what we want to wear to the party but I think we have it figured out!

Ooh I love your garage sale purchase! :lovestruc

Your plans look great especially for your birthday :thumbsup2

I did the MNSSHP on my last trip and loved it. Looking forward to reading more of your plans :goodvibes

Thanks! We tried garage sales again this weekend hoping to repeat our luck but we struck out.

Even though I would call ourselves Disney vets we are total newbies when it comes to the party so we are doing all sorts of research!

Sounds like some great plans so far!

I really wish Disney would announce their plans for SWGE!

I don’t understand why they are taking so long to set any concrete plans. Like I posted earlier, they make us decide all these things so early then take forever to make pretty major announcements! Trying to remain calm....
 
Hey everyone! How was your weekend? Ours was pretty relaxing. We saw Toy Story 4 on Thursday actually. We went to a special “fan event” showing that was an hour earlier than the first showing. It came with a small popcorn and was supposed to include some sort of special cards that we didn’t get. And I didn’t even eat the popcorn. So we paid extra to see it an hour earlier. We loved it! This is probably an unpopular opinion but it was my favorite Toy Story movie. I think I would rank them 4, 1, 3, and 2. We loved all the new characters and Donnie has decided we are going to be Ducky and Bunny for MNSSHP!

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(Happy almost 27th Anniversary to me going to River Country. There’s a few terrible photos of the pool with the waterfall but I won’t share them since you can barely tell what it is.)

Day 6- Thursday

Another weak planning day. We apparently want to go back to HS at 6 am after possibly staying out for late EMH the night before? We made these plans in like 10 minutes on our lunch break at work one day so some stuff might get switched around. My only other note for today is “Epcot for more Food and Wine” That actually sounds like a good idea!



Day 7- Friday, Our last Park Day

We have to be in MK during our last park day but this is a party day so we will have to be outta there at 6. I specifically noted Festival of Fantasy for today, cause we literally won’t be in MK at 3 pm any other day. And again we thought we needed another evening at HS for Galaxy’s Edge but I’m a big proponent of MK being the last thing we see and Peoplemover being the last thing we ride so who knows.

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(I originally thought this was the Jungle Cruise line but maybe it was the Swiss Family Treehouse? Here’s some amazing 90s fashion. I’m sporting a baseball style romper. When I was younger people mistook me for a boy more than once and I can see why. My sister is wearing a black crop top and baby pink shorts which honestly looks a lot like what’s in style now, if only her fanny pack matched the rest of her outfit.)

Day 8- Saturday

Wake up and drive 14+ hours home. Cry.



So that’s it for our plans. Clearly things will change. A lot. And we are cool with that. We have literally one ADR (which I already changed once) and I like it like that. Most places we want to eat have same day reservations all the time or we will get QS. We decided no “extras” other than MNSSHP so no dessert party and no tours. We are going back in January so don’t have much time between trips to save money. We are 82 days away which means 22 days til FP so I will be coming up with some plans next. Someone help me with Disney math. We added a night at the beginning of the trip, so technically we have a split stay. Will I be able to book FP for the whole trip 60 days from our first check-in date or will I have to wake up early and stress out twice?

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(If we get really desperate, I can take this out of the scrapbook and see if they will let me use it!)
 
We had a similar weekend! I also saw Toy Story 4 and loved it! I seriously think I'm going to be Gabby Gabby for our MNSSHP!

You have a really great first set of plans! It's great that you're open to a flexible schedule and things changing right now, and you have a pretty solid foundation to build off of!

Love the outfits in that Adventureland picture. You and your sister are style icons.

You should be able to book FP+ for both parts of your split stay on that first morning!
 
Ah I’ve not seen Toy Story 4 yet but hopefully will do on the weekend coming.

A shame that you didn’t get the special cards or get to eat popcorn.

The Epcot Food and Wine festival sounds good the day after evening EMH.

MK on the last day is a good call as well. You are right, your sisters outfit would work now as well!

I was curious about FPs for a split stay as well so glad I know the answer now :goodvibes
 

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