Bring on the Pixie Dust! Going Back to Disney with Mom - a May 2016 PTR 5/18: LIVE UPDATE!

[LindseyJo22]

0 days till Fastpasses!
59 days till Disney!!!

An Actual May Trip Update!!


Hi again everyone! It's been an eventful few days since I last updated. Before I get back to the mini Trip Report from December, it's time for a real update on exactly what the heck we'll be doing in just 59 days! I can't believe it's getting so close - it seems like every week just zooms by, and we're getting closer to Disney

On Thursday I was super excited because our Fastpass window was opening at midnight! That meant we needed to make some solid park plans, even though we'd mostly decided what we wanted to do. We ended up with this order:

Tuesday - Will and I will hit up Epcot probably, mom doesn't have a park ticket for this day.
Wednesday - Magic Kingdom!!
Thursday - Resort hopping and exploring - and probably a stop at the Magic Kingdom
Friday - Hollywood Studios all day! Gotta see Fantasmic I'm hoping they have the new Star Wars fireworks (or at least extend the current ones), but it's looking like we may miss that :/
Saturday - Epcot!
Sunday - More Magic Kingdom and a dessert party

Originally, we had thought we might do Epcot opening on the 19th because we're so close to the park. But with so much closed at Epcot right now, we figured one full day would probably be enough for us to hit up the major attractions. And Will and I kind of have an extra afternoon there since we'll be able to get down to Orlando hopefully around lunch time

So we had our park plans, we had called my mom to decide what rides we really wanted to try to get Fastpasses for, and it was almost midnight. I got the Disney website up and was all set to do all the fastpassing all ninja-like, and I made a huge mistake!

I forgot that mom had to have park tickets before I could make any of her fastpasses

Of course, it was now midnight Eastern and, even though my mom is an hour behind us she doesn't usually stay up till 11 most nights. So I was freaking out a little and really frustrated at myself! We have had Annual Passes for the last few months, and for our honeymoon and our trip a few years ago Will's parents had bought our tickets really far out so we'd already had everything linked up. I was really worried that we'd have to wait for Disney to mail tickets to mom. Then we probably wouldn't get the Mine Train fastpasses I wanted and would have to gamble on some of our good times! Needless to say, I was freaking. out.

I think that's part of the stress of planning for/with other family members. I know that my mom just wants to be at Disney with us. She would probably be fine if we didn't ride the Mine Train or whatever. But I want this to be a super awesome trip!

We couldn't do anything that night, so I went to bed and got up early the next morning to do some sleuthing. I found out that many people had copied fastpasses from one person to another person in their group with success, so that gave me some hope. I figured even if it did take a long time to get mom's ticket, we could make our fastpasses and try to copy them. At worst, we'd cancel everything and start over. I figured even if we didn't get the prime rides, we'd still be at Disney (which is the fun part anyway)! And I am perfectly willing to stalk the app to get stuff later.

After some quick texting back and forth (and more research), I also found out that if mom bought her ticket online it should be able to link right to her account immediately! Thank goodness! This was such a huge relief, but I was still worried that it wouldn't work and we'd be out of luck. Thankfully, she had brought her computer with her on a visit to my grandfather (totally fate - she doesn't usually). She bought her ticket last night, it was linked up immediately (!), and I got to copying all of our fastpasses to her account.

I am so happy to say this worked perfectly! Now I don't know how it would have worked if we had needed to wait for a mailed ticket. I think that might have been more difficult, but I've heard of it happening. I double and triple checked everything to make sure it was correct, and we all had awesome fastpasses

So after all that drama, here's what we've got:

Tuesday:
Spaceship Earth - 2:10
Living With the Land - 3:25
Journey Into Imagination - 4:25

Wednesday:
Mine Train - 9:10
Peter Pan - 10:25
Splash Mountain - 12:55

Thursday:
Mine Train - 3:00
Big Thunder Mountain - 4:25
Winnie the Pooh (yay!) - 5:25

Friday:
Tower of Terror - 9:30
Toy Story - 10:30
Star Tours - 11:30
(planning to rope drop Rockin' Roller Coaster)

Saturday:
Test Track - 9:10
Spaceship Earth - 10:20
Nemo -11:20

Sunday:
Jungle Cruise - 1:00
Space Mountain -3:40
Splash Mountain - 4:45

I'm SO EXCITED!! Now of course there is more hurry up and wait But we've got 30 days until I can make our Be Our Guest order, and I've obviously got to figure out what snacks and food I want to try this trip

So there's more to plan I'm also hoping our Beach Club waitlist comes through, but I have my doubts that it will - but being able to swim in the pool would be so fun!

And our next update will be back to the non-PTR portion of this report - more Christmas at Disney

 

[kastoney]

Looks like you got some great fast passes. Glad everything worked out with your Mom. We're going with my inlaws next month and had some similar drama.

 

[LindseyJo22]

53 days till Disney!!!

24 days till BOG Ordering (because I needed another countdown)!

We've had a few things get ironed out for May - Mom got her airline tickets (yay!) and I submitted the Magical Express form, so that is all good to go. I've only got about 5 weeks of teaching left for the semester, and then I'm going to have to figure out what the heck to do with myself this summer (also yay). But right now I'm going back to December again - more Disney Christmas decorations!

December Day 3!

Sadly, it was our last day at Disney for this short trip - but it was a great one! We ended up taking it pretty easy. Spent the morning in Magic Kingdom, hung around the Polynesian and the resorts for a good while, and had a spur of the moment dinner at The Wave!

We did get to MK early because I love and needed to see the Welcome Show! Also I loved that the Mickey flowers in front of the train station looked like an ornament - if you look closely, you can see a gold piece at the top of the red mouse ears that looks like an ornament hanger All the decorations at the Magic Kingdom were fabulous!

A little blurry, but I love these guys One of these days we'll make it to a Christmas Party so I can see the holiday parade!

I know we did some rides, but apparently I didn't take any pictures of them. If we did our usual, we probably hit up some Fantasyland or Tomorrowland before the lines got crazy. We definitely did Mine Train and Splash Mountain since I have the pictures:

Don't know why this one is so huge!

At some point we got lunch at our favorite - Columbia Harbor House!

We both got lobster rolls. Yummy!

I loved that even the cups were Christmas-y!

Then it was time for more Fantasyland. We did Peter Pan, where I got some really bad pictures:

This is basically the only one that wasn't just a blur

Then it was on to Winnie the Pooh - we got a Red Card!

My favorite bear!

At some point we were wandering around the Hub and they were doing the Move It Shake It parade thing - pretty cool!

At this point, we decided we'd had enough park time for a little bit. It was getting hot and kind of crowded, so we headed over to the Polynesian to soak up the atmosphere.

And no trip to the Poly is complete without a stop here:

We split a swirl Dole Whip - my favorite kind!

And while we were eating, someone came around passing out cookies in the lobby - so obviously we had one of those too:

Then it was off to the Grand Floridian to see the Gingerbread House - so cool!

The details on this were just phenomenal - each little window had a cute scene painted on it:

There was also a Winnie the Pooh scene, but I apparently didn't take a picture with my phone :/

and I loved the poster of all the ingredients:

We resort-hopped and generally just hung around for the rest of the afternoon until it was time to eat dinner at The Wave! We had gone by earlier in the day to see if they had a reservation available, and it was very easy to get one - the concierge said that you can basically show up when they open and get a table.

We were incredibly pleasantly surprised with this meal. Our server was really great, even though we ended up splitting an appetizer, entree, and dessert. She was very attentive and really made the meal great.

We ended up with fish tacos as our appetizer, plus the house bread and butter with red wine sea salt:

Super good! I could probably order these as a meal and get dessert! The bread was really hearty, and I thought the red wine sea salt was interesting.

For our entree we ended up with the seared gnocchi - with braised beef in a cabernet cream sauce:

This was just amazing. We loved every bite, and even though we were totally stuffed after dessert, could have totally gone for more just because it was so delicious! I think our server recommended this, and it was a great recommendation.

For dessert, we got the "Chocolate Flight:
German Chocolate Cake with Salted-Caramel Sauce, Chocolate Ganache, and Toasted Coconut, Chocolate Crème Brûlée with fresh Raspberries, The Wave Chocolate Brownie with White Chocolate Ice Cream and Godiva Chocolate Sauce."

This was really yummy- the creme brulee was my favorite, but the german chocolate cake was really good too! The brownie was fine, but the other two were the standouts.

I think MK may have had some EMH this night - we definitely watched the castle lighting and got in one last ride on the Jingle Cruise before heading back to get some sleep.

All in all, this trip was amazing! A great way to end the semester and begin our holiday season. We still talk about how awesome The Wave was, and it was not terribly expensive to split everything. I'm a little sad that our year of many Disney Trips is about to be at an end, but the fact that we can probably go once a year for the foreseeable future definitely helps!

Plus, I may be tentatively planning a Princess Half Marathon weekend trip - if I get enough running in to feel like that's an actual possibility And if I can come up with some of the funds myself! So it may not be a year between trips after all

I'll be back soon with some ideas about snacks, food, and other fun stuff for May! It's getting so so close! Thanks for reading

 

[Elevationist]

I'm so glad to hear that despite the delay, you were still able to get all your FP+ arranged! Congrats!

At some point we got lunch at our favorite - Columbia Harbor House!

We both got lobster rolls. Yummy!

This is one of my favorites, too! (And I also get the lobster roll!)

We split a swirl Dole Whip - my favorite kind!

I love the swirl, too! I hate that you can't get it in MK anymore!

And while we were eating, someone came around passing out cookies in the lobby - so obviously we had one of those too:

SAY WHAT?! Free cookies?! Awesome!

All in all, this trip was amazing! A great way to end the semester and begin our holiday season.

That's AWESOME!

We still talk about how awesome The Wave was

Maaaan, and I just took The Wave off my massively massive ADR wishlist for October... Now you're making me regret it!

Plus, I may be tentatively planning a Princess Half Marathon weekend trip - if I get enough running in to feel like that's an actual possibility And if I can come up with some of the funds myself! So it may not be a year between trips after all

I really really really hope this happens!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Looks like you got some great fast passes. Glad everything worked out with your Mom. We're going with my inlaws next month and had some similar drama.

I am glad too! That was not a fun realization at midnight - but in the grand scheme of things, it was not a big deal at all to make the FPs during the day on Friday. I would have been worried if we had to wait for the physical ticket to mail since that just came this week, but thankfully not!

I'm so glad to hear that despite the delay, you were still able to get all your FP+ arranged! Congrats!

Me too! Yay!! And we've got Space Mountain, which we haven't ridden in a while, so I'm excited.

Maaaan, and I just took The Wave off my massively massive ADR wishlist for October... Now you're making me regret it!

It is good! But no reason to skip other stuff for it - just maybe on a future trip We toyed with going there for lunch, but the menu is different and it didn't really grab us as much.

I really really really hope this happens!

Me too! Depends on how my 10k goes right before our May trip - if I enjoy that well enough, I figure I can train for the half. And depends on the finances, but I'm pretty sure I can make it happen if I work hard enough!

 

[Saphire5742]

All caught up again!
Glad you were able to get your FP's sorted out.
And I've very much enjoyed your mini TR's, especially this last one.
The gingerbread house and all the other decorations are adorable.

 

[kadrachb]

Catching up on some PTRs tonight!

Wednesday - Magic Kingdom!!

We are also going to MK this day!

 

[LindseyJo22]

6 Days until BOG Order!

35 Days until Disney!

Hi everyone!

Thanks to the people who are still reading There hasn't been a whole lot of Disney stuff recently, just because we've done most of the planning. So my way of getting through the next few weeks has been to watch all the Disney Youtube channels I can find (I've got like 4 or 5 now that I'm subscribed to...it may be a problem). I've also been adding a little bit to my Tsum Tsum collection, playing the phone game, and trying to figure out the Magic Kingdoms game on my phone

In addition to those things, I've done a little bit of crafting for our upcoming trip! Over the past few months, I've been lusting after the fancy Minnie ears you can get on Etsy. I love them, and I thought about buying some for the trip, but they are just a little out of my price range, especially if I wanted multiples. I still think I might get one at some point, but I've got a bunch of stuff I'm trying to put money aside for (like running shoes and Princess 2017 registration), so ears are not so high on the priority list

However, I was browsing through one of my Disney Facebook groups (just another way to continue the obsession) and someone posted a fabulous Youtube tutorial on how to make your own! So I got some Winnie the Pooh fabric and a few other materials, and I created these cute ears:

For some reason, I can't get my images to not be huge, so whatever. The ugly paper in the background was so I didn't get hot glue on the table

They ended up looking pretty cute on, but the ears are a little higher up than I would ideally like:

Giant selfie!

So I decided I obviously needed to try another pair We are planning to try and rope drop the Sadness/Joy meet & greet in Epcot this trip, since we've got a Test Track fastpass and Soarin' is closed. Plus, these characters don't seem to have FPs yet :/ In that spirit, I decided to make a set of Inside Out ears:

These turned out pretty well (you can see a little flubbing of the sewing at the bottom, but I figure my hair will hide it). I love the giant bow and that Joy and Sadness' faces worked out I've got Anger and Disgust on the back of those ears

So that's basically what has been going on with me - tons of Disney crafting, gaming, and counting down the days until we're back home!

We also got some cute shirts for the trip this weekend - we went up to Atlanta to do a few things and hit up some Disney stores while we were there.

I ended up with this shirt:

and Will grabbed this one:

(images from Disneystore.com)

They don't go together quite as well as our grey ones, but we figured we could use another set - that way you can see a little more variety in our Disney attire in the next TR

The final Disney-ish thing we did this week was watch Tomorrowland - I'd heard the Dis review of the movie, and it had been on our list for a while. We finally decided to get it from Netflix, and I'm so glad we did! I know this one was kind of a box office flop - and I don't quite know how you'd fix that issue. The reason we didn't see it in theaters was that the preview didn't tell you anything about the movie. We didn't really know what it was, or what it was about - and so weren't interested enough to find out. But we both thought watching the movie would have been much less interesting if we'd known some of the major plot points beforehand, so it seemed like kind of a difficult situation.

Overall, we loved the visuals in the movie. It was stunning, and there were some really great actors in this film! I also loved the overall message of optimism and hope that ran throughout the whole thing. It ended up being really uplifting, and the scenes that showed the Worlds Fair were just fabulous. I definitely recommend the movie - it's worth renting or Netflixing if you haven't seen it

And I've heard you can get a Tomorrowland pin from Test Track if you sign up for Chevy information (I may use a junk email address). Yet another thing to add to the list of stuff to do at Disney!

Hoping to be back soon with some snack ideas and food plans for Flower and Garden

 

[Saphire5742]

The Ears came out real cute! And love the new shirts.

 

[kadrachb]

These are so cute, you did a great job!

I end up buying bows to hold my hair back from extrasweetbowtique on etsy. She does some mickey ears too, but I've seen people put some of her bows on ears.

 

[lynnirene]

I am just joining in now because I see that we will be there most of the same days! (We doing May 18-23 at the Swan) I'll have to keep an eye out!

It's getting close, I'm so excited

I absolutely love your ears and you may have inspired me to try making some now, too.

 

[Elevationist]

trying to figure out the Magic Kingdoms game on my phone

I downloaded this a few weeks ago, but have yet to even open it up and look at it. Is it fun?

In addition to those things, I've done a little bit of crafting for our upcoming trip! Over the past few months, I've been lusting after the fancy Minnie ears you can get on Etsy. I love them, and I thought about buying some for the trip, but they are just a little out of my price range, especially if I wanted multiples. I still think I might get one at some point, but I've got a bunch of stuff I'm trying to put money aside for (like running shoes and Princess 2017 registration), so ears are not so high on the priority list

I've had to make myself stop looking at them! They're SO CUTE!!! But like you, I have other things to be spending my Disney money on right now!

However, I was browsing through one of my Disney Facebook groups (just another way to continue the obsession) and someone posted a fabulous Youtube tutorial on how to make your own! So I got some Winnie the Pooh fabric and a few other materials, and I created these cute ears:

THESE ARE ADORABLE. I'm not crafty at all, so I'm super jealous! These look so good, maybe you could start your own Etsy shop, and make a little extra Disney money!

So I decided I obviously needed to try another pair We are planning to try and rope drop the Sadness/Joy meet & greet in Epcot this trip, since we've got a Test Track fastpass and Soarin' is closed. Plus, these characters don't seem to have FPs yet :/ In that spirit, I decided to make a set of Inside Out ears:

LOVE THESE! I love how it looks like Joy and Sadness are peeking out around the big purple bow!

The final Disney-ish thing we did this week was watch Tomorrowland

I still need to watch this, too!

Hoping to be back soon with some snack ideas and food plans for Flower and Garden

 

[LindseyJo22]

I downloaded this a few weeks ago, but have yet to even open it up and look at it. Is it fun?

It's not as fun as Tsum Tsum It's more of a waiting game a lot of the time which is nice because I don't need to check it constantly. But some things take a while, and if you don't check in enough the happiness level of your park goes down which can be a little annoying I am actually really enjoying it despite those things, though! It's really cute and it didn't take me too much time to get my happiness level back up after ignoring the game for a bit

These look so good, maybe you could start your own Etsy shop, and make a little extra Disney money!

Aww thanks! I've considered it, but I don't know that I'm quite as creative as the people already on Etsy. But it may be a summer project just to see if it would be profitable at all. They don't take a whole lot of time, and I can use my coupons to get materials from joann's pretty cheap. Just need to make a few more trial pairs to get my sewing down more Because any way I can make side money means more $ for February!! And more trips in general

 

[ArielSRL]

I'm late but I'm here!

. We're in Georgia, so it's only about a 5 or 6 hour drive, depending on stops and traffic

Had no idea you are in GA, neighbors! We are in Gwinnett.

Going back to catch up!

 

[ArielSRL]

Ok, so all caught up! We are at SSR this trip (and our last one, too). We were in a studio last trip but a 1 bedroom this time. No, we don't own DVC....its just been Cash ressies thus far, though I'd love to buy in (hoping for SSR resale at some point). We are also planning a June 2017 trip where we will rent points from a coworker...so for that trip, I'm deciding between AKV, Savanna view; BWV; or BCV. Of course, it all depends on what we CAN get (coworker's home resort is SSR but she's never not gotten something else she wanted). But in any case, I'll be paying attention to your accommodations. Oh and my youngest son is a Will (my dad's first name is William, though he goes by his middle name). Oh and teacher here, too...though I'm early childhood ed.

Time for bed for me, but great PTR thus far and looking forward to more!

 

[ArielSRL]

Just caught up on your honeymoon TR. Enjoyed it. Also started watching the vlogs you suggested. So far, I like Tom and Sophie the best. I do like the organization of SeeYaReelSoon but they are incredibly cheesy. Looked at a couple others but I didn't necessarily like the organization of the videos. But, thanks again for all your suggestions!

 

[LindseyJo22]

for that trip, I'm deciding between AKV, Savanna view; BWV; or BCV. Of course, it all depends on what we CAN get (coworker's home resort is SSR but she's never not gotten something else she wanted). But in any case, I'll be paying attention to your accommodations. Oh and my youngest son is a Will (my dad's first name is William, though he goes by his middle name). Oh and teacher here, too...though I'm early childhood ed.

Any of those will be fabulous! We've stayed at Boardwalk for all of our past trips except December and love it. Beach Club is definitely on the list, but at this point I don't really think our waitlist is going to go through - maybe on a future trip! We have a plan of eventually doing a food intensive AKV trip where we can easily eat at all their restaurants

We did end up changing our view category to a non-Boardwalk view after our weekend in January though. Will was really bothered by the noise from people who had been out at Jelly Rolls, etc. and had a hard time sleeping. I sleep through most stuff, so I didn't notice, but it's definitely something to consider. In a bigger villa it might not be an issue, but we were in the couch bed right by the window in a studio

Just caught up on your honeymoon TR. Enjoyed it. Also started watching the vlogs you suggested. So far, I like Tom and Sophie the best. I do like the organization of SeeYaReelSoon but they are incredibly cheesy. Looked at a couple others but I didn't necessarily like the organization of the videos. But, thanks again for all your suggestions!

Well thank you! I'm just glad anyone reads these things And I definitely think there's a vlog for everyone - some are definitely a little farther down my list than others, but whatever gets the Disney fix in Glad I could add some to your roster at least!

 

[ArielSRL]

Any of those will be fabulous! We've stayed at Boardwalk for all of our past trips except December and love it. Beach Club is definitely on the list, but at this point I don't really think our waitlist is going to go through - maybe on a future trip! We have a plan of eventually doing a food intensive AKV trip where we can easily eat at all their restaurants

Thank you! Yes, I am sure we will love any and all of them. I'm more leaning toward BCV or BWV because, while I think AKV has a beautiful theme, it might just be too far out of the way for us.

We did end up changing our view category to a non-Boardwalk view after our weekend in January though. Will was really bothered by the noise from people who had been out at Jelly Rolls, etc. and had a hard time sleeping. I sleep through most stuff, so I didn't notice, but it's definitely something to consider. In a bigger villa it might not be an issue, but we were in the couch bed right by the window in a studio

Thanks for letting me know. I did kind of wonder about that. I thought about pool view but that might be loud, as well.

Well thank you! I'm just glad anyone reads these things And I definitely think there's a vlog for everyone - some are definitely a little farther down my list than others, but whatever gets the Disney fix in Glad I could add some to your roster at least!

And yes, even though there were some you suggested that weren't at the top of my list, I'll probably still watch them because I have to get my Disney fix somewhere, right??? Thanks, again!

 

[belle0517]

Joining in!

 

[LindseyJo22]

26 Days until Disney!!

Oh man guys, I cannot believe that we are getting so close to our trip! It's the end of the semester for Will and me, so we've been a little busy. Thankfully, I've been asked to teach again in the Fall, so I'll have a job (yay). The library job I had applied for got caught up in some University budgeting issues and isn't going to be holding interviews until July. Originally, the position was supposed to start in July, so that was a little frustrating. I'm still hoping I'll get an interview, but if not I know that I can teach Fall and Spring next year and I'll be fine. Plus, this means I actually get a really nice summer vacation, which I'm thoroughly looking forward to.

But enough about real life, I know what you want to hear about is Disney stuff!

This week we did our last major "thing" before our visit - we ordered our food at Be Our Guest.

After our last meal there, when neither of us could finish our meals, we decided to do something a little different.

Will and I are going to split the Roast Beef Sandwich - Served warm on a Baguette with Horseradish Sour Cream and Pommes Frites.

(thank you Disney Food Blog - I had a picture but this one is definitely better).

I had this last time we went, and it was super yummy!

Will also decided to get an order of the French Onion Soup

(Disney Food Blog again)


My mom decided to go with the Braised Pork - Eight Hour Slow-cooked Pork with Mushrooms, Onions, Carrots and Bacon served with Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans Jardiniere.

Will got this when we were there in September and loved it!

(more Disney Food blog)


And then Will and I couldn't resist desserts!

I'm going with the Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake again - Vanilla Sponge Cake, Strawberry Mousse Filling and Cream Cheese Icing.

(Disney Food Blog)

Hopefully the wrapper is slightly less annoying, but I can't wait!

And Will decided on the Triple Chocolate Cupcake - Chocolate Sponge Cake, Chocolate Mousse Filling and Chocolate Ganache.

(Disney Food Blog)

He debated about the Grey Stuff, but this won out! I also debated about the Master's Cupcake, but chocolate cupcakes really aren't my favorite, so I went with the favorite from last time

At some point I still need to figure out what we are going to do about Flower and Garden! I don't actually think we'll have a huge amount of time to eat at the booths with all of our reservations, but there are a few things I really want to try.

I can't believe it's so close!